Quarry c. 1939 - 1940

Edward Loper’s landscape, *Quarry*, captures a desolate industrial scene rendered with foreboding, heavy brushstrokes. Loper was a mid-century American painter who spent most of his life in Wilmington, Delaware. During Loper’s lifetime, Wilmington was a rapidly changing urban center, a site of both heavy industry and significant racial segregation. While Loper himself was white, he lived in a Black neighborhood during segregation. Loper had a deep connection to the African American community, and it informed his vision as an artist. Although this painting appears to be devoid of people, it evokes the labor and environmental impact of extractive industry. The dark palette and turbulent sky create a sense of unease. The painting also speaks to the complex intersection of industry, race, and class in mid-twentieth-century America, where the burdens of environmental degradation and dangerous labor practices often disproportionately affected marginalized communities. *Quarry* is a reminder of the human cost of industrial progress.