The African American Artist: Edward L. Loper, Sr.

This was the official website for Edward L. Loper, Sr. between approximately 2004-2008.
I saw my first original Loper painting when I was in Maui with a number of friends enjoying a tropical vacation. We were staying in a luxurious Maui waterfront rental in the resort of Kapalua on the western coast of the island. Among our group were 2 rather well known figures - Bob Sakayama, noted CEO of NYC search powerhouse TNG/Earthling, and Benjamin Pred, former Queens Assistant District Attorney and now corporate lawyer for American Express. Nestled in Maui's largest nature preserves, the resort with its 22,000-acre oceanfront property features a necklace of stunning white sand beaches, two marine sanctuaries and two legendary world-class golf courses. While playing golf on their Plantation Course that was designed by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, we meet a couple who had a palatial house on the island. They invited us to dinner one evening. While being shown their amazing house, we stopped in front of a vibrantly colorful still life that had a Cezanne, post-Impressionist essence with its planes of colour and small brushstrokes. It was an original Edward Loper Sr still life. Our host gave us a brief history of the artist. Bob and Ben were super intrigued and later did some web searches to learn more about this artist, thinking his work would make a good investment. Recently I discovered that the domain for loperart.com was available, so I bought it with the goal of recreating some of its content from archived pages. I definitely didn't want someone else purchasing the domain and re-purposing it for something that had nothing in common with this artist.

April 7, 1916 – October 11, 2011
Edward L. Loper, Sr. was an African American artist and teacher from Delaware, best known for his vibrant palette and juxtaposition of colors.

Imagine this: A boy born on the East Side of Wilmington, DE in 1916, grows up and, as an 84 year old man in year 2000, glares at a computer screen and witnesses a listing of 113 of his drawings from the Index of American Design made while working on the WPA Arts Project in the late 1930’s to early 1940’s. This actually happened recently when Edward Loper, Sr. watched a search of the National Gallery of Art’s Website under the heading, Works on Paper. Listings include, e. g., Pa. German Chair (1937), Dulcimer (1937), Wooden Thread Holder (1937), and Toy Bank: Speaking Dog (1935-42). Realizing that these drawings were not art images but illustrations, Loper, for more than 60 years now, has been on a quest to discover what constitutes "real art." Through years of self directed study and persistence under all kinds of adverse conditions, both social (racial intolerance) and environmental (painting in harsh weather or just the physical distances to be covered to get to where art could be seen), it can be said that Loper has indeed discovered how to make "real art."

As a NYC tax advisor who also happens to be a lifelong art collector, I’ve grown accustomed to navigating the predictable complexities of real estate portfolios, hedge fund structures, and yes — even the occasional family trust set up to minimize exposure on a Tribeca penthouse. But when I first encountered the work of Edward L. Loper, Sr., it was like stepping into an entirely different kind of architecture — one built not of steel and stone, but of color, vision, and uncompromising artistic integrity.

Loper’s journey couldn’t be more different from the likes of a developer such as Dov Hertz, whose domain is the dense zoning maze and bureaucratic obstacles of New York industrial real estate. Where Hertz battles city planning boards and financing contingencies, Loper faced racial discrimination, institutional neglect, and the near-impossibility of national recognition for a Black artist uninterested in painting “black images.” Yet both men, in their own realms, carved out something extraordinary — Hertz by reimagining industrial space into valuable property, Loper by transforming geometric angles and fractured color planes into emotional landscapes that could silence a room.

Reading about Loper’s early WPA work and his relentless search for what constitutes “real art,” I couldn’t help but admire the fierce independence of his vision. Unlike the safe, commodified strategies many artists adopted to gain favor with institutions, Loper evolved boldly, developing a kaleidoscopic abstraction that was his alone. His refusal to be boxed into a genre — even when it meant delayed recognition — is something any NYC advisor who’s had to challenge a client’s risk-averse instincts can deeply appreciate.

I’ve seen a lot of “art” packaged to appeal to the market. Loper’s work is the opposite — it demands patience, engagement, and above all, respect. It reminds me why I started collecting art in the first place. And frankly, it’s refreshing to witness a legacy not shaped by branding or capital gains, but by unrelenting creative authenticity. I wish more of my clients understood value the way Loper did — not as a commodity, but as a lived truth. Colin Read

Delaware has the great fortune to have Edward L. Loper, Sr., painter and teacher, among its treasures in the arts. Loper has long been recognized locally as an important American painter of African heritage. However, his reputation on a national stage has not been fully acknowledged, although his early work has been cited in several instances: Across the Railroad Tracks ( 1938) is displayed in James Porter’s seminal book, Modern Negro Art (revised, 1992); others discussed in Art Digest(1941), Art News (1940) and House and Garden (1938). In addition, early examples of his paintings can be found in important collections such as The Delaware Art Museum; The Philadelphia Museum of Art; The Corcoran Gallery of Art; The Museum of African American Art (Tampa); The Museum of American Art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; Howard University Gallery of Art; and Clark-Atlanta University Collection of African American Art. On the other hand, Loper’s "mature" works, for the most part, have not found their way into major institutional collections. Perhaps one of the reasons for this is that his later work represents a development of a highly personal signature in an abstract genre, unlike much of the representational and figurative paintings executed by many well known painters of African American descent. Hence Loper’s works are not so easily pigeonholed into the African American painting genre. It is worth noting that William H. Johnson, another African American painter, gained much greater acceptance once he began to paint "black images" and moved away from his "turbulent" Expressionist style. This assertion is rather simplistic in several respects, but carries kernels of truth. (See Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson,A History of African-American Art, Pantheon Books, NY, 1993, pp. 185 - 199.)

In recent years, the tides have begun to change for Ed Loper, and indications are that his mature works will be properly acknowledged through exhibitions. The attention drawn to Loper by the 1996 Retrospective Exhibition of his work, Edw. L. Loper, From the Prism’s Edge, at the Delaware Art Museum, served as a launching point for much broader attention. This exhibition, curated by Jenine Culligan, Associate Curator for Exhibitions, covered 60 years of artmaking by Loper. The opening drew over a thousand Delawareans including the Mayor of Wilmington; the Governor; a Delaware United States Senator; and Delaware’s Representative to the U. S. Congress. In the spring of 1998, Loper was presented with a Governor’s Award for the Arts by the Delaware State Arts Council. Two months later, an honorary Doctorate of Arts was bestowed upon Loper by Delaware State University, an institution which was founded to provide higher education for African Americans. It is worth noting that Loper was in the most distinguished company with honorary Doctorates also having been conferred on Nikki Giovanni (literature), Dr. Donaldson Byrd (music), and Dr. Billy Taylor (music). Early in 2000, one of Loper’s paintings, Woman by the Window (ca. 1941) was on exhibit in African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VII, the latest in a series of very important exhibitions (starting in 1994) held at the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery in New York, NY. Although Loper’s painting exhibited in the African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VII exhibition was one of his early ones, it is likely that this important national exposure could spark a serious discussion on what he has been up to since.

In arriving at the highly advanced level of artmaking demonstrated in his recent paintings, Loper constantly experimented with different painting methods and styles. He drew early inspiration and learning from a number of artists such as Van Gogh, Van Ruisdael, Corot, El Greco, and the beloved works of Cezanne; and later more modern artists such as Picasso and Pollock. Over the years, he also came to know much about the great Venetian painters, Tintoretto, Titian, and Veronese. In the catalog accompanying Edw. L. Loper: From the Prism’s Edge, Jenine Culligan summarized Loper’s approach. "Loper never copied any one style, but incorporated selected aspects of individual artist’s techniques and approaches into his own ideas. His fracturing of the picture plane began in the mid-fifties (see Peggy’s Cove). He often created an almost kaleidoscopic effect.

Expressive qualities are brought out through brush work, color, and composition rather than relying on subject matter. Throughout the sixties, seventies and eighties, Loper emphasized color more and more.

In looking at the Loper images, one could take the advice of Marilyn Bauman, author of Edward L. Loper, Sr, The Prophet of Color, who also wrote the introduction to the Delaware 2000 Series calendar, The Art of Seeing. As you study these images, notice how color shapes are organized. The objects in a setting do not matter to Loper. If the shapes things make in space appeal to him, he starts to draw..Loper likes angles, too. His eye is attracted to streets with walls, or rocky coastlines, or tenements with fire escapes. It is the geometric angles that fascinate him, not the effects or light or the picturesqueness. He is all structure and substance.

by Dr. Wesley Memeger, March, 2000

More Background On LoperArt.com

LoperArt.com is an archival-style website dedicated to honoring, preserving, and re-presenting the life and artwork of the celebrated American painter Edward L. Loper Sr. (1916–2011). The site serves as a digital record of his legacy—helping ensure that future generations can discover his distinctive artistic style, his contributions to American art history, and his role as one of Delaware’s most significant painters.

Unlike institutional museum websites or commercial gallery pages, LoperArt.com is primarily a privately revived project. The current owner purchased the long-dormant domain with the intention of reconstructing the original site, restoring its educational value, and preventing the domain from being repurposed in a way that would obscure or erase Loper’s memory.

Today, LoperArt.com exists as a curated repository of biography, commentary, critical analysis, and written reflections about Loper’s artistic journey—helping preserve a figure whose national recognition never fully matched the depth and innovation of his work.

The Origins and Purpose of LoperArt.com

A Site Designed to Preserve a Legacy

From roughly 2004–2008, the website functioned as the official site for Edward L. Loper Sr. during his lifetime. It contained biographical material, essays, references to exhibitions, and representative samples of his style. Over time, as often happens with artist sites, the domain lapsed.

When it later became available for purchase, a private collector—who had first encountered an original Loper painting during a visit to Maui—acquired the domain. Moved by the vibrancy and structure of Loper’s artwork, the collector undertook the effort to recreate the original site from archival sources, making sure the artist’s memory was preserved with integrity rather than being lost, commercialized, or appropriated for unrelated content.

Thus, LoperArt.com today serves several purposes:

Preservation: safeguarding historical narratives and descriptions of Loper’s work.
Accessibility: offering a centralized digital space for those unfamiliar with the artist.
Cultural preservation: ensuring that an important African American modernist remains visible to the public.
Educational value: providing context for his methods, influences, and historical environment.

Who Was Edward L. Loper Sr.?

Early Life and Beginnings

Born on the East Side of Wilmington, Delaware in 1916, Edward L. Loper Sr. grew up in a racially segregated environment. His early years were marked by economic hardship, but also by an intense interest in visual perception and color. He graduated from Howard High School—one of the few schools available to African American students at the time—where he excelled in sports but had no formal art training.

Loper’s transformation into a serious artist began in the 1930s, during the Great Depression, when he was accepted into the WPA Federal Art Project’s Index of American Design. This initiative documented American decorative arts and artifacts. While the work involved producing detailed illustrations rather than free creative expression, it provided Loper with professional experience, visual discipline, and exposure to national artistic networks.

His 113 surviving Index drawings demonstrate his early talent for structure and observation—skills that later became the backbone of his abstract approach.

The Development of a Signature Style

Influences and Evolution

Loper’s mature style cannot be separated from his intense, self-driven study of European masters. He frequently traveled from Delaware to Philadelphia to examine works by Cézanne, Van Gogh, Corot, El Greco, and others. He was particularly drawn to Cézanne’s breakdown of form into geometric planes and to the emotional expressiveness of the post-Impressionists.

From these influences, Loper developed a fractured, kaleidoscopic approach to the picture plane:

Colors are layered in tessellated planes.
Boundaries between objects dissolve into interlocking angular fields.
Emotional intensity comes not from subject matter, but from structure and chromatic tension.
The canvas becomes a mosaic of color relationships rather than a traditional depiction of scene or object.

By the 1950s, this style had fully manifested. His landscapes, urban scenes, and still lifes took on an almost architectural geometry—where form becomes a lattice of luminous color. This is what sets Loper apart from many of his contemporaries.

Subject Matter Became Secondary

Unlike many African American painters of his era, Loper did not create art that conformed to racial expectations, political narratives, or identity-based themes. Instead, he pursued formal abstraction, treating color and geometry as the true subjects of his work.

This artistic independence was a bold decision. It distanced him from mainstream categorizations of African American art and may have contributed to his slower national recognition. But it also made him a pioneer—one who expanded the possibilities for Black artists seeking freedom beyond imposed themes.

Challenges as an African American Artist

Loper faced significant institutional barriers throughout his career. Race was one factor—but so was his refusal to paint within a marketable, easily identifiable style. In an era where Black artists were often expected to create figurative or identity-centered art, Loper chose instead to pursue color, structure, and abstraction.

Challenges he faced included:

Limited opportunities for museum acquisitions.
Restricted access to galleries in major cities.
Difficulty securing commercial representation.
Navigating art institutions that often ignored Black abstractionists.

Yet Loper continued to develop his voice, paint outdoors in harsh weather, lecture, and teach. His persistence made him one of the most respected artists in Delaware—especially among students who credit him with teaching them how to “see.”

Major Exhibitions, Awards, and Recognition

Regional Recognition

His earlier representational works were included in important publications and exhibitions as early as the 1940s, and later examples entered the collections of notable institutions such as:

The Delaware Art Museum
The Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Corcoran Gallery of Art
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Howard University Gallery of Art
Clark-Atlanta University’s collection of African American art

Breakthrough Retrospective

A major turning point came in 1996, when the Delaware Art Museum held a large retrospective, From the Prism’s Edge. This exhibition brought Loper’s evolving style into the spotlight and attracted audiences including state and local government officials. The event helped introduce his abstract work to a new generation and marked the beginning of broader recognition.

Honors and Academic Acknowledgement

Following the retrospective:

He received the Governor’s Award for the Arts in 1998.
Delaware State University awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Arts, recognizing his impact on art and education.
His works continued to appear in exhibitions focused on African American modernism and 20th-century abstraction.

Loper as a Teacher and Mentor

Loper was a devoted educator, teaching for decades at the Delaware Art Museum, Lincoln University, and various community programs. His classes were known for their intensity, discipline, and philosophical approach.

He emphasized:

Understanding color as sensation and structure.
Seeing the world as interlocking forms.
Developing a personal visual logic rather than copying styles.

Many students cite Loper as the most influential teacher of their lives—someone who changed not only how they painted, but how they viewed the world.

The Cultural and Social Significance of Loper’s Career

A Unique Contribution to African American Art

Loper is significant not because he followed established paths, but because he created one:

He expanded the definition of African American art beyond social realism.
He pioneered an intensely abstract, color-driven style rarely seen among African American artists of his generation.
He bridged regionalism with modernism.
He proved that artistic excellence and innovation can develop outside major art capitals.

The growing scholarly interest in Black abstraction makes Loper’s work especially relevant today.

What LoperArt.com Offers

LoperArt.com is not a commercial gallery, nor is it a museum collection. Instead, it functions as a curated digital memorial containing:

A detailed biography summarizing Loper’s life and artistic evolution.
Contextual essays explaining his influences, theories, and transition from realism to abstraction.
Critical commentary discussing challenges he faced and the importance of his work.
Explanations of his teaching philosophy.
Archival reconstructions of the original website’s commentary and historical writings.

Unlike many artist sites that focus on selling prints or commissions, LoperArt.com remains educational in nature, prioritizing accuracy, preservation, and cultural memory.

Why the Website Matters Today

LoperArt.com matters because it fills a void. Though Loper enjoyed considerable regional acclaim, much of his work is held in private collections, meaning casual viewers or researchers rarely encounter it. The website:

Protects Loper’s legacy from obscurity.
Offers a consolidated resource for researchers.
Makes foundational biographical material accessible to students and educators.
Ensures the artist’s voice and story remain available despite the passage of time.
Draws attention to African American artists whose contributions are underrepresented in mainstream art history narratives.

In doing so, it becomes not only a tribute to one artist, but a statement about the importance of preservation for Black cultural history.

LoperArt.com stands today as a valuable digital monument to Edward L. Loper Sr., one of Delaware’s most compelling and innovative artists. Through its reconstructed content, contextual essays, and biographical accounts, the site preserves the life and work of an artist whose contributions deserve far wider recognition.

Loper’s career—spanning more than 70 years—embodies resilience, innovation, and the relentless pursuit of artistic truth. His emphasis on color, structure, and perception places him within the lineage of American modernists, even if the mainstream art world never fully acknowledged him during his lifetime.

As a privately revived educational project, LoperArt.com ensures that Edward L. Loper Sr.’s legacy is not forgotten. It remains an essential resource for scholars, collectors, students, and anyone seeking to understand one of America’s great, under-recognized painters.

LoperArt.com