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American & Southern | May 30, 2025

Fri, May 30, 2025 10:00AM EDT
  2025-05-30 10:00:00 2025-05-30 10:00:00 America/New_York Brunk Auctions Brunk Auctions : American & Southern | May 30, 2025 https://live.brunkauctions.com/auctions/brunk/american-southern-may-30-2025-17404
The month of May ends with our Premier Auction of American furniture, paintings, and decorative arts. Important artists include A.T. Bricher, Worthington Whittredge, Winfred Rembert, Andrew Melrose, Gunnar Widforss, and others. Of Southern interest is a museum exhibited W. A. Walker, a double sided panel by Key West folk artist Mario Sanchez, two works by Alice Ravenel Huger Smith, Southern pottery from the Ackland Art Museum, and more. A Connecticut Queen Ann bonnet top high chest, Tiffany, Arts & Crafts and mixed metal silver, weathervanes, and many other categories round out the sale.
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Lot 1223

Winfred Rembert

Estimate: $20,000 - $40,000
Starting Bid
$10,000

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $25
$100 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,000 $200
$3,000 $250
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
$20,000 $2,000
$50,000 $5,000
$100,000 $10,000

(American/Georgia, 1945-2021)

Mama and Me Baking, signed lower right "Winfred Rembert", inscribed verso "Mama Can't Inhale Flour so She Wears a Mask", dye on carved and tooled leather, 12 x 9-1/2 in.; modern black frame, 13-1/2 x 11 x 1 in.; Together with a drawing of Butch Jordan's Cafe signed "To my friend Chicken George/Winfred Rembert', inscription verso that relates to the painting "the is Mama and Me (Winfred) Mama used to make cake and cookies, she could not inhale flour dust, She would put a rag over her face. So thanks mama for taking a chance on your life so I could eat your cakes and cookies/Winfred Rembert", pencil on paper, 12 x 18 in.; in mylar sleeve attached to the painting

Provenance: Purchased from the artist

Note: Born in rural Georgia, raised in a community tied to the cotton fields, Winfred Rembert survived a childhood of poverty in the segregated South of the 1940s. He would go on to be a nationally recognized artist, and his biography - "Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South" - was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2022.

It was not a well paved path. In 1966, after a demonstration in Americus, Georgia, Rembert was arrested and put in jail without being charged. A year later, he escaped but was caught and hung up by a group of deputy sheriffs. They stuck him with a knife but did not kill and burn him as he had anticipated. He spent the next seven years in a chain gang. Remarkably, he met his wife while building roads and bridges in rural Georgia as part of his prison sentence. While in prison, a man named TJ taught him how to carve wallets out of leather, a skill that he would use decades later in his embossed leather paintings.

After his release, Rembert and Patsy married and they moved to New York, then Connecticut, where he worked a variety of jobs. Not until in his 50s after a second round in prison, did he begin to draw and paint the scenes of his youth, carving the stories into tactile leather canvases.

In 2000, Rembert had a well publicized show at the Yale University Art Gallery. In 2002, he was introduced to Peter Tillou after speaking about his artwork at a school in Waterbury, Connecticut. A short time later they agreed to a working relationship that included numerous exhibitions and his 2010 "coming out" show at Adelson Galleries in New York. Their relationship continued until Rembert's death in 2021.

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Purchased items will be available for pick up or shipping from our Asheville, North Carolina auction facility within ten business days of the auction, or will be assessed a storage fee of $5.00 per day, per item. Purchaser agrees that packing and shipping is done at the purchaser's risk and that the purchaser will pay in advance all packing expenses, materials, carrier fees and insurance charges. At our discretion, items will either be packed by an agent such as a packaging store or Brunk Auctions. Please allow two weeks for shipping after payment is received. Shipment of large items is the responsibility of the purchaser. We are happy to provide names of carriers and shippers if a purchaser so requests. Brunk Auctions will have no liability for any loss or damage to shipped items.

Purchased from the artist

painting is in very good condition; frame with light wear; drawing folded in half and in a mylar sleeve attached to the back of the painting Note - Brunk Auctions makes every effort to offer accurate and thorough information, but encourages prospective bidders to inspect items in person whenever possible. Condition statements are provided as a courtesy for general guidance and should not be considered complete or definitive. They do not represent a warranty or assumption of liability by Brunk Auctions. Certain condition issues may not be specifically noted in the report but may be visible in the accompanying photographs, which are considered part of the overall condition report. Please refer to our Terms of Sale for complete information and contact us for additional photos or information as needed.