diff --git a/numpy/core/arrayprint.py b/numpy/core/arrayprint.py
index 19be452e518f..f3add44630da 100644
--- a/numpy/core/arrayprint.py
+++ b/numpy/core/arrayprint.py
@@ -308,7 +308,7 @@ def _array2string(a, max_line_width, precision, suppress_small, separator=' ',
         elif issubclass(dtypeobj, _nt.datetime64):
             format_function = formatdict['datetime']
         else:
-            format_function = formatdict['str']
+            format_function = formatdict['numpystr']
 
     # skip over "["
     next_line_prefix = " "
diff --git a/numpy/core/tests/test_arrayprint.py b/numpy/core/tests/test_arrayprint.py
index 0cd78c27e2e7..2a2a97336746 100644
--- a/numpy/core/tests/test_arrayprint.py
+++ b/numpy/core/tests/test_arrayprint.py
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 import sys
 import numpy as np
 from numpy.testing import *
@@ -147,6 +149,15 @@ def test_formatter_reset(self):
         np.set_printoptions(formatter={'float_kind':None})
         assert_equal(repr(x), "array([ 0.,  1.,  2.])")
 
+def test_unicode_object_array():
+    import sys
+    if sys.version_info[0] >= 3:
+        expected = "array(['é'], dtype=object)"
+    else:
+        expected = "array([u'\\xe9'], dtype=object)"
+    x = np.array([u'\xe9'], dtype=object)
+    assert_equal(repr(x), expected)
+
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":