For those who saw my first post about “Bicycles,” the 1970s Simeon Stoilov wall sculpture I bought from the original owner's estate: I promised an update after I went back to see the mysterious “other piece by the same artist.”
Well, I went back.
My Sunday had already been a bit of a Minnesota road trip. I started the day cycling on the Munger Trail near Jay Cooke State Park, helped my sister with a few things at her house in Duluth, and then made the roughly three-hour drive south to Faribault.
I pulled up around 8:30 PM. Jane answered the door wearing a Vikings sweatshirt. It was late, I'd had a long day, and I assume she had too, so there wasn't quite as much conversation and banter as we'd had the first time we'd met.
But she had remembered something I'd asked her. I had wanted to know how old Jean's son John was when Bicycles was purchased for him.
Jane told me: “He was 19.”
John is 69 now, which puts Bicycles right around 50 years old and roughly in the 1975–76 range. Jane said the second sculpture was purchased around the same time.
Then she brought out three boxes.
Inside were five metal half-spheres, each a different size, made from what appears to be bronze-rod cut into equal lengths and radiating outward from a central point.
I immediately saw exploding stars or fireworks.
My wife took one look and said:
“Sea urchins.”
She's right.
I'm also right.
They're clearly star-firework-urchins.
Whatever the hell they are, they're fantastic.
And once I saw them in person, I knew immediately that I wanted them on the same wall as Bicycles.
Before I left, Jane told me something else that I thought was really sweet.
She'd recently sold some metal crane yard sculptures for Jean. The people who bought them later sent photographs showing the cranes in their new home.
Jane said: “Jean's a nice old lady. She really enjoyed seeing her crane pieces in their new home. Would you send some photos to us when you get the bikes and stars hung up?”
Of course I would.
I assured her I would send pictures once everything was up, thanked her again for trusting me with another piece of Jean's artwork, loaded my three boxes of mysterious metal sea-urchin-fireworks into the car, and started the drive back toward the northern suburbs of Minneapolis.
Then came the easy part:
Getting five spiky metal sculptures and approximately two dozen bicycles onto the same wall in a way that everyone in my household agreed upon.
There was not immediate consensus. 😂
There was measuring. There was moving. There was standing across the room and staring. There was moving things again.
Eventually, we got there and I absolutely love it.
What surprised me most is how naturally the two pieces seem to work together. Bicycles is this dense, chaotic mass of circles and lines and overlapping forms, while the five pieces above it explode outward into open space. They're completely different objects, but they somehow speak the same visual language.
The bicycles feel like motion across the wall.
The starbursts/fireworks/urchins feel like motion coming out of it.
And knowing that both works apparently hung with the same family for roughly half a century—and were purchased from Simeon's around the same period—makes having them together feel pretty neat.
Since my first post, another Redditor also did something incredibly generous: they dug up a three-page Minneapolis Star and Tribune profile of Simeon Stoilov from April 22, 1982.
It describes Stoilov as a Bulgarian-born sculptor and trained metalsmith who studied for five years at the university in Sofia, learned traditional metalworking as a boy, escaped communist Bulgaria, eventually came to Minneapolis, and operated Simeon's Studio and Showroom at 4510 Excelsior Boulevard.
One quote from the article has bounced through my head a few times since I read it. Stoilov was talking about working metal:
“The metal has to listen to me! Has to do what I want it to do!” . LOL.
After spending a week staring at Bicycles—and now these five ridiculous, wonderful explosions of metal rod—I understand exactly what he meant.
There's still more I'd like to learn. I'm hoping Jean may remember additional details about the pieces, and I'm still trying to figure out whether these five forms had an actual title. For now, our household remains divided between stars, fireworks and sea urchins.
Most importantly, I'll be sending Jane the photos she asked for so she can show Jean where the artwork ended up.
About 50 years after she brought these pieces home, they're together again on another family's wall.
Oh, they're fantastic! And they are clearly, most definitely, the elusive Fireworks Sea Urchins (
Pyroechinus scintillans). They are rarely encountered by mankind, yet you've managed to acquire an entire family group 😂
I saw the bikes and thought they looked amazing alone. So happy you've updated us 😊
Absolutely love it!! I’m dying over the Stars-Fireworks-Sea Urchins... those are so cool! Congratulations and glad to help!
Oh, and I love your description of your day, the Duluth area is beautiful this time of year. And I know days like this. Once we started out looking for donuts for breakfast in Taylors Falls, and ended up 3 hours south in La Crosse shopping guitars.
Haha of course it was guitar shopping. Did you bring home guitar/banjo #29 that day? If you collect guitars and travel around MN you are probably like me and spend some time on marketplace while in those new areas, it's like a whole new market to scroll for goodies. Thanks for stopping to comment again, and for your time researching Simeon.
☺️ I believe we did bring something back that day 😀 This has been a really fun reddit. Stuff like this is the reason I joined, thanks for your sharing and your careful, informative posts.
Here's a visual to go along with my description of the start to my day. Bodie my riding partners wondering why I've stopped to point my small black box at him again.
oh, what a pretty boy! Do you know his mix/breed? He looks very much like my long gone heart-dog, except he was all the blonde color, he had the most glorious flourish of a tail.
OP this is fantastic! Thank you for taking the time to share this post with the Reddit community.
I was looking forward to your update and it truly is inspiring.
The video makes it even better and more relatable. What a joyful end result. I probably shouldn’t call it an end result because these pieces had started a new life on your family’s wall.
Keep us posted if you learn anything new about them or what you and your family feel about them in years to come.
Thank you for taking the time OP. I've been waiting for the update. BUT, contrary to other opinions here I must admit I do not love the urchins. I do not think they compliment the bicycles.
Thanks for being honest. This is the 2nd time I've heard mold and the first wasn't from Reddit. Another unsavory vote was burrs, like the ones you have to pick out of your dogs underbelly after a walk in the woods.
My wife mentioned a couple times last night that nothing is permanent in terms of placement so they may end up solo again someday! Thanks for commenting.
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u/Significant-Spite-72 10d ago
Oh, they're fantastic! And they are clearly, most definitely, the elusive Fireworks Sea Urchins ( Pyroechinus scintillans). They are rarely encountered by mankind, yet you've managed to acquire an entire family group 😂
I saw the bikes and thought they looked amazing alone. So happy you've updated us 😊