Black Excellence Month: Winfred Rembert

Winfred Rembert
(1945 - 2021)

Winfred Rembert was born in 1945 in Americus, Georgia, where cotton and peanut farming were the main activities. The medium he used was large sheets of tanned leather into which he carved his pictures, then he painted them with vibrant leather dyes. His expressions were colorful, if often painful, memories (Oppenhimer). He picked cotton and attended school as he could in his youth, and a series of run ends with the law almost got him lynched  - he was lucky to survive the night (Seelye). Ultimately he ended up in prison where he did his best to keep up with his education but found himself working for a chain gang in Leesburg, Georgia. Following his release from prison seven years later, he took jobs as he could. His paintings, the memories he was sharing, started off as a hobby. He was 52 years old when he made his first painting, which then hung in a friend's store (Oppenhimer).