Folk Art

Winfred Rembert Moonshiners Painting, ca. 2001

Appraisal: Winfred Rembert 'Moonshiners' Painting, ca. 2001

Transcript

GUEST: This is a painting by the New Haven artist Winfred Rembert. It's entitled Moonshiners, and it is hand-carved, tooled painting on leather. Back in 2001, I was a executive producer of a news magazine show at the PBS affiliate in Connecticut, and one of our great producers on the show said, "I learned of this New Haven artist who paints on leather." And not only was it an art that he learned in prison, but it was his experiences growing up in the Jim Crow South in the '50s. My husband and I wanted to support him, so we went to his house in New Haven. Very sweet man. A man who was nearly lynched, a man who served seven years on a chain gang, yet he was a puppy of a guy. Just very sweet man. And, uh, we bought this, this painting.

APPRAISER: How many paintings were there? Did you have a choice?

GUEST: Oh, we did have a choice. It was his very modest home, and they were all lined up. There was probably 12, 13 paintings. It was all his community, his experiences. This spoke to us, and it hangs in our dining room, so it's really cool.

APPRAISER: And what did you pay Winfred for this?

GUEST: It was $1,200 in cash.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: So this artwork is by Winfred Rembert.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And he was born in 1945.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: As you said, in the Jim Crow South.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: He was born in Americus, Georgia.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: But grew up in Cuthbert, Georgia.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Because his mother had given him away...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...as a child. She had him out of wedlock. And the aunt lived in Cuthbert. And Cuthbert is about 150, 160 miles south of Atlanta.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: And he grew up picking cotton.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Uneducated, could not read or write.

GUEST: Mm.

APPRAISER: And around the age of 19, he joined the Civil Rights Movement.

GUEST: Okay, mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And there was one day, at a Civil Rights march in Cuthbert, he was chased by a group of white men, stole a car...

GUEST: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...was immediately captured, put in prison for a year with no trial.

GUEST: Oh. Oh, my.

APPRAISER: And at some point during that year, he was able to overcome a deputy sheriff, stole his gun, escaped, and was quickly captured. At that time, he was put in the trunk of a car...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...his clothes taken off, driven out to a field. And when they opened the trunk, he was surrounded by men with nooses hanging in the trees.

GUEST: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Very emotional.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: And hung upside down and assaulted, mutilated.

GUEST: Mm, mm, mm.

APPRAISER: And he doesn't know how or why they stopped, but they did. And he was taken to prison. And he spent the next seven years in various prisons.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And as you said, on the chain gang...

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: ...in Georgia.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And during his imprisonment, he actually learned to read.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And then he learned to write. He met his wife while in prison, Patsy.

GUEST: Patsy, mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: He was released from prison, made his way up north, and settled in Bridgeport, and then...

GUEST: And then New Haven.

APPRAISER: Then New Haven.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: He has an autobiography, which in 2021 came out. And what was the title of it?

GUEST: The title is "Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South."

APPRAISER: It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2021.

GUEST: Mm-hmm, '22.

APPRAISER: Winfred died in 2021.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: So he lived to be about 75.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And he did not start creating these artworks till he was about 50 or 51. He learned to tool leather in prison.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And there was a guy there he called TJ the Tooler. But he was a relatively young man...

GUEST: At that time, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...at that point in time. Uh, so that was in the late '60s, early '70s when he did that.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: You purchased this what year?

GUEST: Uh, 2001.

APPRAISER: So, 2001 would have been more on the early side...

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: ...of his career. This was probably made shortly before you walked into his home and purchased it.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And we don't know exactly how many he did, but people are guessing somewhere around 500 to 800.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: And this particular one people are now calling "Scenes From Daily Life."

GUEST: Okay, right, good point.

APPRAISER: So this is Cuthbert, Georgia.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Hamilton Avenue.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: That was the main...

GUEST: The main drag.

APPRAISER: The main drag.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: That's where the businesses were, the juke joints.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And this is moonshiners.

GUEST: Yeah, yep.

APPRAISER: And we have some yeast over there.

GUEST: (laughing): Yeah.

APPRAISER: And a wheelbarrow filled with sugar.

GUEST: Sugar, yep.

APPRAISER: Now, when you look at some of his other works, that are the chain gang...

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: ...that are picking cotton...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...that show lynchings...

GUEST: Yeah, yep.

APPRAISER: ...it's very emotional.

GUEST: Very. Very intense, yeah.

APPRAISER: Very, very-- very, very intense. Toward the end of his life, he was under the care of a psychiatrist, because when he worked on certain scenes, on certain topics, he became physically ill.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: He was definitely suffering from PTSD...

GUEST: Oh!

APPRAISER: ...and was diagnosed as such, but that helped him.

GUEST: Sure.

APPRAISER: And in his autobiography, he thanked the doctors that helped him, which allowed him to continue to work...

GUEST: Sure.

APPRAISER: ...on those subjects.

GUEST: Sure.

APPRAISER: Which are some of his most powerful artworks.

GUEST: And when we met him, he was such a, a warm man. You would think with that kind of experiences, he'd be spitting nails.

APPRAISER: I met him twice.

GUEST: Oh, you did?

APPRAISER: The second time I met him, he was at a function honoring someone that had helped him...

GUEST: Oh!

APPRAISER: ...in his journey.

GUEST: Oh!

APPRAISER: And he got up and sang "Amazing Grace."

GUEST: (gasps) Ooh, I just got a chill.

APPRAISER: There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: Yeah, it was so powerful.

GUEST: (voice breaking): Mm, yeah. (chuckles) (sniffles) Yeah.

APPRAISER: Yeah? Amazing-- I'll always remember that. So, here we are.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: The market has become very, very active. Museums now feel a need to have an example of his artwork.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: In today's market, retail, I would have no problem saying this is somewhere between $100,000 and $125,000.

GUEST: (softly): Are you serious? Wow, um... I hate to say "wow," but I didn't expect that, um... That's super. I mean, I-- you're telling me that the art world not just values this, but values his stories, values the storyteller.

APPRAISER: Absolutely-- you know, absolutely.

GUEST: My husband and I just wanted to support him, never knowing that this would become such a legacy.