From prison chain gang to art world notoriety, the life and work of Winfred Rembert

The artist Winfred Rembert died last year. Born in Cuthbert, Georgia in 1945, his work has been compared to the art of Jacob Lawrence and Horace Pippin. Unlike them, he honed his skills in prison. Rembert came from a family of field laborers. He got involved in civil rights work as a teen and was arrested after fleeing a demonstration. He survived a near lynching at the hands of law enforcement and spent seven years on chain gangs.

Rembert, who always affirmed he had been unjustly tried and imprisoned, told his story in Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South. As the title suggests, the trauma he experienced never left him. For instance, he went through periods where he couldn’t sleep next to his wife Patsy, for fear of hurting her as he lashed out in his sleep. Nonetheless, Rembert was able to channel his creativity into a lasting artistic legacy.