Edward Leroy Loper Sr. (April 7, 1916 – October 11, 2011)[1] was an African American artist and teacher from Delaware, best known for his vibrant palette and juxtaposition of colors.

Loper was born to a poor family on the east side of Wilmington, Delaware, in a racially mixed section known as Frogtown.

[1] After graduating from high school in 1934, he had to forego an athletic scholarship at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania to start working in order to help his family financially.

[2] He began taking the train to the Philadelphia Museum of Art on weekends, studying painting's great masters; self-taught, he slowly developed his own style and technique.

[1][2] He was employed by the Works Progress Administration Art Project from 1936–41, and at the Allied Kid leather tanning factory until 1947, at which point he became a full-time artist and teacher.

[2][12] By the early 1950s, with a growing appreciation of the works of Pablo Picasso, Loper had transitioned from creating self-described mood paintings to concentrating on color and shapes, including experimenting with a kind of kaleidoscopic cubism, refracting subjects into planes as if seen through shards of glass.

[2] He was first invited to study there when he met Barnes in 1946, but declined the original offer, as he was recently married with young children to care for.

[14] Starting in the late 1940s, to escape some of the racism he experienced at home, he began traveling to Quebec City in Canada, where he would paint boldly-colored cityscapes.

[1] Following his death, Delaware Today wrote of Loper, "Few local painters have achieved his level of recognition and influence, here and beyond, or have been as beloved by so many students.

"[17] On November 1, 2011, Delaware senators Thomas R. Carper and Christopher A. Coons memorialized Loper as part of the Congressional Record.

[20] An oral history interview with Loper conducted on March 26, 1964 is housed at the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art.

[23] In 2013, the Hagley Museum and Library produced a 22-minute documentary, Edward Loper: African American Painter, based on a 1998 interview with the artist.