Winfred Rembert. All of Me III, 2002. dye on carved and tooled leather, Overall: 74.9 x 70.5 cm (29 1/2 x 27 3/4 in.). Gift of Agnes Gund in memory of Ed Harding, 2022.61. Copyrighted.

All of Me III

2002

Winfred Rembert

Winfred Rembert (American, 1945–2021)

Contemporary Art

All of Me III, 2002. Winfred Rembert (American, 1945–2021). Dye on carved and tooled leather; overall: 74.9 x 70.5 cm (29 1/2 x 27 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Agnes Gund in memory of Ed Harding 2022.61 The All of Me series is the most iconic works by the artist. The imagery exemplifies the remarkable story of his life in which he survived an attempted lynching during the Jim Crow era and served years in prison during which time he worked on a chain gang. Rembert says this about the subject of the chain gang in his work:

I've painted a lot of pictures of the chain gang. I believed that many people in the free world thought bad of the chain gang. They looked at the workers on the chain gang, working on the highways and in the ditches, and I believe they thought that all the guys were killers. With the paintings, I was trying to show that it wasn’t that way.
Following his early release from a 27-year sentence in the Georgia prison system, and eventual relocation to New Haven, Rembert documented his experiences in paintings consisting of dye on carved and tooled leather, perfecting a technique he had been taught by a fellow prison inmate.

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