BIRMINGHAM, AL.- The Birmingham Museum of Art will present the first monographic exhibition dedicated to the work of American modernist, Hayward L. Oubre, Jr. (1916–2006). Through 52 sculptures, paintings, and prints, Hayward Oubre: Structural Integrity reveals how the artist shaped American art while working in the South, and underscores the crucial role of Black artists and art departments at HBCUs in shaping the artistic landscape of the twentieth century. The exhibition debuts at the Birmingham Museum of Art on October 4, 2024, and will run through February 2, 2025.

The exhibition is made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the Henry Luce Foundation.

“From vivid and assertive canvases that seem to announce themselves as visual declarations, to intricate and colorful wire sculptures that achieve new heights for the medium in his expert hands, Oubre’s work both captivates and fascinates,” says Graham C. Boettcher, R. Hugh Daniel Director and CEO of the Birmingham Museum of Art. “The BMA is proud to organize the first major monographic exhibition of his work and play a role in bringing his genius to a wider audience. The project is also meaningful for us because of the role Oubre played in educating generations of artists in Alabama.”

Born in New Orleans in 1916, Oubre became the first student to graduate with a bachelor of fine arts degree from Dillard University, Louisiana’s oldest HBCU. While pursuing postgraduate studies at Atlanta University, Oubre was profoundly influenced by the tutelage of internationally-acclaimed painter Hale Woodruff (1900–1980) and prominent sculptor Nancy Elizabeth Prophet (1890–1960). Following his military service in World War II, Oubre enrolled at the University of Iowa, where he earned his master of fine arts degree in 1948.

Oubre shaped art in the United States not only as an innovative artist, but also as a distinguished educator at two prominent HBCUs. He served as the first chair of the art department at Alabama State University (ASU) in Montgomery, from 1949 to 1965. After leaving ASU, Oubre established the art department at Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) in North Carolina, building on the legacy he shaped at ASU. Returning to the South for his teaching career, Oubre dedicated his life to growing and enhancing the southern network of Black artists.

Oubre is best known for his work with an everyday material—wire coat hangers which he used to create modernist masterworks. These artworks fuse his lived experience, wide-ranging interests, and art historical influences in compositions that range from realism to pure abstraction. He completed nearly forty wire sculptures prior to the early 1980s, when he became unable to create the physically demanding sculptures. Though Oubre is primarily known as a sculptor and printmaker, he painted throughout his career, experimenting with new materials and depicting the Black experience.

“Oubre’s modernist practice incorporated accessible new and found materials to produce work steeped in its place and moment: funny and current, relevant and visually dynamic, as well as political and personal,” says Katelyn D. Crawford, The William Cary Hulsey Curator of American Art at the BMA. “Within Oubre’s story is a history of Alabama art shaping American art that has yet to be written. This exhibition begins to tell this story, laying the foundation for future projects on the work of Black artists in the South.”

The exhibition will offer a tightly focused presentation of outstanding examples from Oubre’s body of work, covering topics including his training, teaching, and exhibiting at HBCUs; the influence of his military service on his art; his political activism during the Civil Rights Movement; and his fascination with modern technology, the Atomic Age, and the Space Race.

Hayward Oubre: Structural Integrity includes loans from major museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the High Museum of Art—as well as major southern collections of African American art. Oubre won nine awards at the annual exhibitions of work by Black artists staged at Atlanta University (AU) from 1942 to 1970. Every work for which he won prizes at the AU annuals is represented in this exhibition, many of them loans from Clark Atlanta University Art Museum.

“This exhibition brings Oubre’s work to our local, regional, and national audiences, highlighting his important legacy, which has been carefully stewarded by his family, friends, students, and early collectors,” says Crawford. “Oubre bridged a century with his unshakable determination to create. When he retired in 1981, he had taught and made art for more than forty years, educating generations of Black southern artists.”