Ronald Lockett

Ronald Lockett (1965–1998), Drought, 1994

Found tin, pencil, nails on wood, 48 1/2 x 51 1/2 in.; New Orleans Museum of Art, Museum purchase and gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation

Drought stands out as one of Lockett’s most powerful and affecting pieces. The background is fashioned from two strips of salvaged metal siding and nailed to recycled plywood. A deer stands in the center, its head lowered to a drying pool or stream represented by torn metal nailed horizontally to the lower left. Lockett fashioned the deer from individually snipped strips of metal, hand-cut to form the animal’s contours and give it depth. Lockett added punchwork detail for the eyes and in the area around the deer. The metal, incorporated into the work with its traces of scabbed and flaking paint, communicates an arid and barren landscape that offers no succor to the desperate living.