COASTE | ARTS traditional art in the 1950s, and who remained a vital, relevant and valuable contributor to art for the rest of his life. Stirner spent some 15 years working as a studio assistant and then digital archivist at Rauschenberg’s estate on Captiva. In fact, Rauschenberg was among the first people to purchase art created by Stirner and became a major collector of his work, but the master provided something far more valuable — public praise and critical affirmation, calling Stirner’s art “fresh and spiritual, yet physical.” Fresh. Spiritual. Physical. These words aptly define JonasStirner’s sculptures that takediscarded metals and rust-caked materials, and elevate them to works of art. These include “Peace on Earth,” a towering piece that features metal pilings, a large rusty drum and a wickedly twisted ladder reaching for the heavens. “The Helmet,” a top-heavy piece that suggests a makeshift battlefield grave marker for a fallen soldier. Then there’s “Confession,” a frayed metal screen adjoined to a segment of metal shelving from which chain links are suspended; for those familiar with that interaction behind a
screen in a church confessional, the imagery and symbolism are striking.
Every artist — writer or painter or sculptor— begins a new project with one thing in common: the anxiety of the blank sheet, canvas or concept. Jonas Stirner is no different; he doesn’t always adhere to a preconceived idea, but is open to whatever may come. “I work intuitively, and that often leads tomore interesting results. Ultimately, I’m striving for truth, the feeling that the sculptor is composed with balance and symmetry of the dissimilar.” Today, Jonas Stirner’s art can be found among galleries on Sanibel Island and Naples, and was also selected to inspire poetry readings at this year’s ArtPoems event staged at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center. And while at first, one may not readily grasp the truth for which Stirner strives, each piece is wonderfully inviting to individual interpretation — or, in other words and in other hands, another man’s treasures.
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