Hometown modernist Hayward L. Oubre, Jr. receives show at New Orleans Museum of Art
The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) presents the first monographic exhibition dedicated to the work of American modernist Hayward L. Oubre, Jr. (1916–2006). Through 48 sculptures, paintings, and prints, Hayward Oubre: Structural Integrity reveals how the artist shaped American art while working in the South. Organized by the Birmingham Museum of Art, the exhibition is on view at NOMA from January 30 through May 3, 2026.
“This exhibition is an important reexamination of American modernism from the vantage point of the South—and through the eyes of a New Orleans–born artist,” said Susan M. Taylor, The Montine McDaniel Freeman Director of NOMA. “This thoughtful retrospective of Oubre’s work will provide a new consideration of color, materiality, and representation in 20th-century art.”
Oubre is best known for his work with a seemingly ordinary 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, and also painted throughout his career, experimenting with new materials and depicting Black experiences.
Born in New Orleans in 1916, Oubre became the first student to graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Dillard University. While pursuing postgraduate studies at Atlanta University, Oubre was profoundly influenced by the tutelage of internationally-acclaimed painter Hale Woodruff (1900–80) 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.
In addition to Oubre’s artistic innovations, Structural Integrity underscores the crucial role of art departments at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in shaping the artistic landscape of the twentieth century. Oubre 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 in North Carolina, building on the legacy he shaped at ASU. Through his teaching career, Oubre dedicated his life to growing and enhancing a Southern network of Black artists.
“This exhibition is a full-circle moment, looking back at Oubre’s work from his home city of New Orleans,” said Anne Collins Smith, Chief Curator at NOMA. “Oubre’s work demonstrates the vital role of Southern artists and Black artists within American modernism. This presentation at NOMA will offer visitors an overdue look at Oubre’s work and the opportunity to draw connections with other important artists represented in the museum’s permanent collection.”
The exhibition offers 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.
“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 Birmingham Museum of Art. “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.”
Hayward Oubre: Structural Integrity includes loans from museum collections—including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the High Museum of Art—as well as major 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.
