Cousins in dialogue: Ronald Lockett and Thornton Dial Sr.
American folk art often provides an intimate glimpse into lives and communities as seen by the artists themselves. More often than not, these artists do not receive formal art training, as was the case for both Ronald Lockett (1965 - 1998) and his older cousin Thornton Dial Sr. (1928 - 2016). Positioned far from the influences of the Harlem Renaissance in the Northeast, Dial’s work features objects found near his home in Alabama. Dial symbolically depicts themes including social injustice, the consequences of technological advancement and terrorism through tin, washbasins, old clothing, motor oil, carpet and plywood. Inspired by Dial, Lockett would forgo any attempt to leave the artistic community that embraced his relative. Securing a place for himself within the Birmingham-Bessemer community, a group of artists made up predominantly of African American men, Lockett would become his cousin’s apprentice and eventually bridge the gap between the two generations.
The current exhibition features one work by each artist: Dial’s “Food Line” (2008) and Lockett’s “Undiscovered” (1993), both in the museum’s collection. Independently, the pieces speak to the social climates of the past, present and future. Described by those he met as quiet and reflective, Lockett made early work containing imagery of animals, at times symbolic in essence, documenting their plight of survival in a world of shrinking wilderness and growing hunting grounds. He also made work of enameled wood embedded with chicken wire, tin and sticks that resembled other abstract, avant-garde works from the latter half of the 20th century.
During the last few years of his life, before succumbing to pneumonia complicated by AIDS, Lockett’s style gradually shifted completely from paints to metals, like those in “Undiscovered.” Much of the material he used had been fragments previously covered in paint by Dial. The unintentional splattering of Dial’s paintbrush became the residue out of which Lockett constructed the reality of his experiences. It appears that much of Lockett’s later work dealt with the same subjects as his earlier paintings, but depictions of world events, including the Oklahoma City bombing, entered his practice. In a May 2014 interview with art historian Bernard L. Herman, Atlanta gallerist Barbara Archer said, “... he saw these rusty parts, and he actually saw them as quilts. And of course quilting was a tradition that he totally understood, because [his late great aunt Sarah Dial Lockett] who he lived with, she was a quilter. He saw quilters around him and to me that was his real brilliance, that he assembled those rusty pieces into quilts. That was a big step, that was a big period, a big shift.”
Having experienced the civil rights movement, Dial rendered suffering and struggle for survival in his works of art. Instead of Lockett’s gentle deer, Dial chose the tiger to represent the oppression of sentient beings. Presented side by side, the works exist close to one another just as the artists who created them did, and a unique conversation flourishes as a result. The vivid rust-colored hues and stylized impressions tell the stories of the liminal space between the Deep South and the state of the world as a whole. Lockett would undoubtedly agree with the words of his mentor in an interview with art writer and collector William Arnett circa 1995: “Art [is] supposed to show the way the world is: sometimes dark, sometimes light.”
The Georgia Museum of Art invites guests to experience the discourse between the two artists for themselves and to witness firsthand the honesty and narrative layers evident in both their work.