Creating Connections: Self-Taught Artists in the Rosenthal Collection Audio Exhibition
Ronald Lockett (American, 1965–1998), Traps, circa 1989, wire, painted wood, chain-link fencing, found sticks, cut sheet metal, and nails, 49 x 54 x 4 in. (124.5 x 137.2 x 10.2 cm), Collection of Richard Rosenthal, © 2022 Estate of Ronald Lockett / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Verbal Description
Hello, my name is Darcy Schwass, and I am the museum’s director of marketing and communications. I will be reading the verbal description for Traps by Ronald Lockett in Creating Connections: Self-Taught Artists in the Rosenthal Collection.
Ronald Lockett created Traps in about 1989 using wire, painted wood, chain-link fencing, found sticks, cut sheet metal, and nails. Lockett was an American artist who lived from 1965 to 1998. This mixed-media work is in the collection of Richard Rosenthal.
Traps by Ronald Lockett is a mixed-media wall piece measuring 49 by 54 by 4 inches or 124.5 by 137.2 by 10.2 centimeters. This piece is layered and built up from a rectangular wood backing painted white. The artist added two leafy green trees to the upper left corner of this backdrop. In the center of the work are two deer-like animals—one brown with antlers seen in profile and the other black in silhouette—crafted from cut and painted sheet metal with found wooden sticks for legs. They both have elongated bodies and legs, and their torsos are truncated with a sharp vertical edge. Two smaller, light-brown deer appear near the bottom of the composition. Sticks extending out behind them suggest that they are running. A large segment of chain link fence covers the animals and most of the backboard, creating the impression that the viewer is looking at them through a fence.
Label Text
Hello, my name is Darcy Schwass, and I am the museum’s director of marketing and communications. I will be reading the label for Traps by Ronald Lockett in Creating Connections: Self-Taught Artists in the Rosenthal Collection.
Ronald Lockett created Traps in about 1989 using wire, painted wood, chain-link fencing, found sticks, cut sheet metal, and nails. Lockett was an American artist who lived from 1965 to 1998. This mixed-media work is in the collection of Richard Rosenthal.
This evocative construction comes from Ronald Lockett’s Traps series. Deer that appear to be caught in chain-link fencing not only express Lockett’s deep sympathy for animals but allude to human struggles, environmental devastation, and racial discrimination.
Around Birmingham, Alabama, a tradition thrived among Black communities of making art out of scrap materials. Lockett, who lived in Pipe Shop, a poor neighborhood in industrial Bessemer, found a mentor in his older cousin, the artist Thornton Dial. He also took inspiration from the yard environments in which many Southern artists expressed their creativity. Lockett knew from boyhood that he wanted to be an artist. In a poignant film made two years before his death at age 33 of HIV-related pneumonia, he noted, “When I feel lost in my life, I go back to my artwork to get in touch with myself and regain who I am.” He expressed hope that his art would be seen and make a difference.