Alfred Hair

Alfred Warner Hair (1941-1970), also Freddy Hair, was an American painter from Fort Pierce, Florida who, along with Harold Newton, was instrumental in founding the Florida Highwaymen artist movement. Hair was the leader of a loose-knit group of prolific African American painters who sold their vibrantly colorful landscapes from the trunks of cars along the eastern coastal roads of South Florida. In 2004, Hair was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame.

Early life Alfred Warner Hair was born 20 May 1941 in Fort Pierce, Florida, one of seven children of Samuel and Annie Mae Hair.

Career Hair's artistic talent had been noticed by his high school art teacher Zanobia Jefferson and she introduced him to the prominent Florida landscape artist, A. E. Backus. Backus had been encouraging several young African American artists and persuading them to paint landscapes rather than religious motifs. He gathered a group of a "young, energetic" artists who painted large quantities of brilliantly colorful impressionistic landscapes. On 9 August 1970, Hair was shot to death during a barroom dispute.