Untitledc. 198847 3/4 x 47 1/2 x 4 1/2 " (121.3 x 120.7 x 11.4 cm)Paint, wire mesh, and nails on plywoodGift of Ron and June Shelp2013.5.801551204553Ronald LockettPaintings© 2016 Estate of Ronald Lockett / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New YorkBessemerBessemerUnited StatesAlabamaeMuseum - Collection HighlightsPaintingsAdam ReichBessemerObject information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org
The animal kingdom –as a spiritual touchstone, African cultural continuum, and ecological tome—is a prevalent motif in the art work of Ronald Lockett. His oeuvre is filled with images and ideas that balance light and dark, birth and death, with animals frequently cast as the protagonists in his allegories. Lockett had a fascination with eschatology—the foundation of Christian theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind. He sought to identify and communicate prophetic signs, looking to sources ranging from the natural world to the Bible as fonts of eternal wisdom. His most frequently used artistic metaphor referenced the treatment of animals by colonial American culture. Quoted by the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, Lockett remarked :
"When [white] people came [to America], they saw buffalo, and they exploited them, and they just destroyed them, because they could. They had guns…They didn’t really shoot them down because they had to feed theyselves; they shot them down just because they could. It’s wrong to destroy anything."
Does Untitled (1988) represent a formative colonial moment re-told through the visual language of the Garden of Eden, (and impending expulsion)? Often, Lockett expanded this narrative between settlers and natural world to reference the relationship between whites and people of color in the United States. He was mindful of the legacy of the Black experience, and used illustrations of cataclysmic events—the Holocaust, Hiroshima, and the bombing in Oklahoma City—to bring visibility to continued suffering, exploitation, and oppression. On the surface, this work appears life-affirming and fecund—a peaceful ecosystem not yet on the verge of collapse. This is a compelling contrast to works such as Once Something Has Lived It Can Never Really Die, also produced in 1988, which is piece that subverts earlier sentiment through the use of materials and motifs that bring destruction and decay to the fore.
Ronald Lockett was born and lived his entire life in Bessemer, Alabama. His parents divorced when he was young, so he spent many hours at the house of his great-grandmother Sarah Dial Lockett, who also raised her nephew, renowned African American artist Thornton Dial Sr. The Dials became an extended family for Lockett. They encouraged his art-making, and he was inspired by witnessing his uncle’s transmutations of found materials into works of art. After finishing high school, Lockett worked briefly with the Dials assisting with various family businesses until his early-20s, when he turned his attention fully to making art. In 1994, Lockett was diagnosed with HIV, and his life was tragically shortened at age 31 by an AIDS-related pneumonia. 19831993 2013 5 8 Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org
The animal kingdom –as a spiritual touchstone, African cultural continuum, and ecological tome—is a prevalent motif in the art work of Ronald Lockett. His oeuvre is filled with images and ideas that balance light and dark, birth and death, with animals frequently cast as the protagonists in his allegories. Lockett had a fascination with eschatology—the foundation of Christian theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind. He sought to identify and communicate prophetic signs, looking to sources ranging from the natural world to the Bible as fonts of eternal wisdom. His most frequently used artistic metaphor referenced the treatment of animals by colonial American culture. Quoted by the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, Lockett remarked :
"When [white] people came [to America], they saw buffalo, and they exploited them, and they just destroyed them, because they could. They had guns…They didn’t really shoot them down because they had to feed theyselves; they shot them down just because they could. It’s wrong to destroy anything."
Does Untitled (1988) represent a formative colonial moment re-told through the visual language of the Garden of Eden, (and impending expulsion)? Often, Lockett expanded this narrative between settlers and natural world to reference the relationship between whites and people of color in the United States. He was mindful of the legacy of the Black experience, and used illustrations of cataclysmic events—the Holocaust, Hiroshima, and the bombing in Oklahoma City—to bring visibility to continued suffering, exploitation, and oppression. On the surface, this work appears life-affirming and fecund—a peaceful ecosystem not yet on the verge of collapse. This is a compelling contrast to works such as Once Something Has Lived It Can Never Really Die, also produced in 1988, which is piece that subverts earlier sentiment through the use of materials and motifs that bring destruction and decay to the fore.
Ronald Lockett was born and lived his entire life in Bessemer, Alabama. His parents divorced when he was young, so he spent many hours at the house of his great-grandmother Sarah Dial Lockett, who also raised her nephew, renowned African American artist Thornton Dial Sr. The Dials became an extended family for Lockett. They encouraged his art-making, and he was inspired by witnessing his uncle’s transmutations of found materials into works of art. After finishing high school, Lockett worked briefly with the Dials assisting with various family businesses until his early-20s, when he turned his attention fully to making art. In 1994, Lockett was diagnosed with HIV, and his life was tragically shortened at age 31 by an AIDS-related pneumonia.