Karl Stirner & Erik Brunetti: A Record from the Easton Studio, 2014

In 2014, a set of photographs was taken at the Easton residence and studio of Karl Stirner. Captured during a visit by Erik Brunetti—then living and working primarily in California—the images document an encounter between two artists separated by generation but closely aligned in temperament and friendship. Stirner, in his late 80s, had long established Easton as a base of production and inquiry. Brunetti, returning east for a brief time, visited Stirner at his studio during what would be the final years of the sculptor’s life.

The meeting was informal and without agenda. What remains is a visual record of two artists in shared space—surrounded by materials, tools, and the accumulated atmosphere of decades of work. Though their practices diverged—Stirner in forged steel, Brunetti in visual language and cultural intervention—each maintained a rigorous commitment to authorship, autonomy, and resistance to institutional mediation.

Their friendship, though intermittent in contact, was enduring in influence. The photographs, held in the Foundation’s archive, speak quietly to a convergence of sensibilities—evident, understated, and preserved.

Karl Stirner died in 2016. These photographs remain among the final records of his time in the Easton studio. Their inclusion in the Foundation’s holdings reflects not only a historical intersection, but a continuity of thought—structural, uncompromising, and deeply rooted.

Requests for scholarly access may be directed to:
archive@erikbrunettifoundation.org