Hayward Oubre Self-Portrait

“I fought racism with my art,” Hayward Oubre asserted. Light-skinned, Oubre could have “passed” for white, but he proudly refused to do so. When a student in his printmaking class at the University of Iowa made a racist remark about him, he responded with a print of a black man attacking a snake that was meant to represent the white race. In this self-portrait, made in the same class, Oubre stressed the tan tone of his skin by using buff paper and leaving a thin coating of ink on the plate. He exaggerated the size of his eyes but avoided the gaze of the viewer, perhaps suggesting his alienation. Lines underneath the eyes evoke premature sags and possibly point to the stress of his having lived in segregated campus housing.
After earning an MFA in 1948, Oubre spent his career teaching, and around 1960, he began making wire sculptures that have earned increased recognition in recent years.