11/11

detail of Winfred Rembert's Picking Cotton with Boss Men, 2007, Dye on carved and tooled leather, 58.5 x 30.25"

this is a most difficult show that (literally) made me sick to my stomach and brought tears to my eyes.

each painting was accompanied by a brief description and a quote from the artist.

this is what was mounted aside this work:

This painting combines two prevalent motifs that appear throughout Rembert’s work: cotton fields and the chain gang. Despite his negative experiences of working in the fields as a child and later as a prisoner, Rembert was determined to transform unpleasant memories into images of beauty here he describes his artistic intentions:

“With my paintings, I tried to make a bad situation look good. You can’t make the chain gang look good in any way besides by putting it in art. Those black and white stripes look good on canvas. People can’t really tell what they are until they get up close. They don’t recognize those stripes as people until they take a real good look. That was my goal - to put it down so you couldn’t understand it until you take a real up-close look. That tells you some thing about prison life. When you look at it from the outside you can’t see what’s going on, but when you’re up close you’ll realize what you’re up against.”