Sunshine II

Label

The rhythmic lines of this colorful composition obscure the harsh labor of picking cotton in the era of slavery and beyond. Growing up in the Jim Crow South, Winfred Rembert was working in cotton fields by the age of six. A self-taught African American artist, he learned the art of leather tooling in prison while serving an eight-year sentence for auto theft. After his release, he told his life story in images such as this one and in the Pulitzer Prize–winning book Chasing Me to My Grave (2021).

From the 2026 exhibition Inhabiting Historical Time: Slavery and Its Afterlives, curated by Amelia Kahl (Barbara C. & Harvey P. Hood 1918 Senior Curator of Academic Programming) and Alisa Swindell (Associate Curator of Photography)

Course History

WRIT 2.07, WRIT 3.01, Exposition and Composition, Erikki Mackey, Fall 2022

ANTH 55.01, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Fall 2022

Anthropology 55.01, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Fall 2023

Exhibition History

First Floor Elevator Wall, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 21, 2022-December 14, 2023.

Inhabiting Historical Time: Slavery and Its Afterlives, Jaffe and Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 20, 2025 - July 11, 2026.

Provenance

Fort Gansevoort, New York, New York; sold to present collection, 2021.

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Subjects