Edward L. Loper Sr. facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Edward L. Loper Sr.
Loper circa 1947.
Born	Edward Leroy Loper (1916-04-07)April 7, 1916 Wilmington, DE
Died	October 11, 2011(2011-10-11) (aged 95) Wilmington, DE
Nationality	American
Education	Barnes Foundation
Known for	Painting
Movement	Impressionism Colourist painting
Spouse(s)	Viola Virginia Cooper (1935-44) Claudine Bruton (1945-1986) Janet Neville-Loper (1986-2011)

Edward L. Loper Sr. (born April 7, 1916 – died October 11, 2011) was a famous African American artist and teacher from Delaware. He was known for using bright, exciting colors in his paintings. He taught art for nearly 70 years, helping many students learn to paint.

Early Life and Education

Edward Loper grew up in a poor family in a part of Wilmington, Delaware, called Frogtown. His grandmother mostly raised him. When he was young, he didn't get any special art lessons.

He went to Howard High School. This was the only high school in Delaware that African Americans could attend at that time. Edward was a great athlete there, playing both football and basketball. After finishing high school in 1934, he had to give up a sports scholarship to Lincoln University to work and help his family.

Becoming an Artist

My Father The Bishop
Oil on canvas, 48" x 36", 1975
University of Delaware

Starting His Art Career

In 1936, during the Great Depression, Edward Loper got a job with the Works Progress Administration (WPA). This was a government program that helped people find work. He drew pictures of old American designs for a project called the Index of American Design. He drew things like toys and furniture. He made 113 drawings in total. He later said this job helped him start his journey as an artist.

Some of his drawings were shown in a special art exhibit in 2002. The original drawings are now kept at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

Learning to Paint

A co-worker at the WPA, Walter Pyle, encouraged Loper to paint. Walter was the nephew of a famous artist named Howard Pyle. Loper started studying Howard Pyle's paintings at the Wilmington Public Library. On weekends, he would take the train to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. There, he studied the works of famous painters. He taught himself how to paint and slowly created his own unique style.

He worked for the WPA Art Project until 1941. After that, he worked at a leather factory until 1947. Then, he became a full-time artist and teacher.

Developing His Painting Style

In 1937, Edward Loper made history. He was the first African American to have a painting accepted by the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts. His painting, After a Shower, showed Wilmington on a stormy night. It won an award in 1938 and was bought by the museum for its collection.

In the 1940s, Loper mostly painted scenes of his neighborhood in Wilmington. He used very bright and lively colors. By the early 1950s, he started to like the art of Pablo Picasso. Loper then began to focus more on colors and shapes. He even tried a style like cubism, where he broke subjects into different flat sections, as if looking through broken glass.

His art style became even stronger after 1963. He was invited to take classes at the Barnes Foundation in Pennsylvania. This place has one of the world's largest private art collections. He learned to carefully study old painting techniques. When he saw Paul Cézanne's painting, The Boy in the Red Vest, it completely changed how he thought about color. This had a huge effect on how he used and mixed colors in his own art. His paintings from the 1960s onwards became much more colorful and structured.

The Delaware Art Museum held a big show of his work in 1996. It was called Edward L. Loper: From the Prism's Edge and showed 60 years of his art. In 2007, the University of Delaware also had a large show of his paintings.

Teaching Art

34 St. Pierre, Quebec
Oil on canvas, 36" x 30", 1980
Private collection, Austin, TX

Edward Loper started teaching painting in 1940. In the late 1940s, he began traveling to Quebec City in Canada. He went there to paint colorful city scenes. Starting in the 1960s, he began taking his students there every summer.

Over the years, he taught at many places. These included the Delaware Art Museum and the Delaware College of Art and Design. He also taught classes at his own art studio. As a teacher, Loper was known for being very energetic and demanding, but also inspiring.

Legacy and Recognition

After Edward Loper passed away, many people remembered his impact. Delaware Today magazine said that few local painters had achieved his level of fame and influence. They also said he was loved by many students.

In 2011, Delaware senators Thomas R. Carper and Christopher A. Coons spoke about Loper in the Congressional Record. Senator Carper said that Loper's "talent for color broke the mold of his time." He added that Loper "changed the landscape for black artists and paved the way for others."

The University Museums at the University of Delaware received all of Loper's paintings that he owned when he died. His art is also in the collections of many other important museums. These include the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A Loper painting hangs in the Delaware governor's house. Two of his paintings also hung in Vice President Joe Biden's official home.

You can find interviews with Loper at the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art. There are also two documentaries about his life and work. One, called Edward Loper: Prophet of Color, won an award in 2000. Another, Edward Loper: African American Painter, was made in 2013.

Personal Life

Edward Loper lived in Wilmington, Delaware, his whole life. He had three children with his first wife, Viola Virginia Cooper. He later married Claudine Bruton and then Janet Neville. His son, Edward Loper Jr., is also a talented painter.

In 1950, Loper designed and built his own house in Wilmington. He was inspired by famous architects like Frank Lloyd Wright. He even painted a mural on a wall in his living room. He turned his garage into an art studio, where he taught lessons in his later years.

Selected Exhibitions

• Whyte Gallery, Washington, DC, 1938
• Solo exhibition, Howard High School, Wilmington, DE, 1939
• Art of the American Negro, Chicago, IL, 1940
• Solo exhibition, University of Delaware, 1941
• Solo exhibitions, Carlen Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 1941, 1947
• The Negro Artist Comes of Age, Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY, 1945
• Exhibition with Andrew Wyeth, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 1949
• Solo exhibition, Warehouse Gallery, Arden, DE, 1957
• Paintings and Sculpture by Frank DelleDonne, Edward Loper, and Charles Parks, Wilmington Society of Fine Arts, 1960
• Solo exhibition, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD, 1965
• Solo exhibition, Little Studio, New York, NY, 1967
• Solo exhibition, West Chester University, West Chester, PA, 1969
• Edward Loper Sr./Edward Loper Jr. exhibition, Delaware Art Museum, 1971
• Solo exhibition, La Galerie Zanettin, Quebec City, Quebec, 1980
• Solo exhibition, Hardcastle Gallery, Wilmington, DE, 1990
• A Tribute to the Teacher, Christina Cultural Center, Wilmington, DE, 1995
• Edward L. Loper: From the Prism's Edge, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE, 1996
• Drawing on America's Past: Folk Art, Modernism and the Index of American Design, Index of Modern Design, Washington, DC, 2002
• African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VII, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY, 2000
• The Art of Edward Loper, Sr.: On the Path of the Masters, University Museums at the University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 2007
• The Edward L. Loper, Sr. Collection: A Centennial Exhibition, University Museums at the University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 2016
• The Loper Tradition: Paintings by Edward Loper, Sr. and Edward Loper, Jr., Delaware Art Museum, 2019.

Honors and Awards

Edward Loper received many awards and honors throughout his life:

• Honorable mention, Annual Delaware Show, Wilmington Society of Fine Arts, 1937
• Second place award, Twelfth Street Garden, Clark Atlanta University, 1942
• First prize, Under the Highline, Wilmington Society of Fine Arts, 1947
• Outstanding Delaware Black Citizen Award, University of Delaware, 1980
• Edward Loper Sr. Day, Delaware, April 7, 1996
• Governor's Award for the Arts, Delaware State Arts Council, 1998
• Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, Delaware State University, 1998
• Honorary Degree of Humanities, University of Delaware, 2004
• Lifetime Achievement Award, NAACP, 2004
• Ambassador of Goodwill Award, City of Wilmington, DE, 2004

Filmography

• Edward Loper: Prophet of Color (1999)
• Edward Loper: African American Painter (2013)