Quarry, c. 1939/1940

[1] The I.B.M. Fine Arts Department purchased thirty-two paintings, prints, and sculptures from the exhibition The Negro Artist Comes of Age: A National Survey of Contemporary American Artists, Albany Institute of History and Art, New York, 1945. It is uncertain whether the NGA work appeared in the exhibition; the accompanying exhibition catalogue includes three works by Loper, but none of them match the dimensions of the work now in the NGA. However, a letter of 16 May 1997 from Jenine Culligan of the Delaware Art Museum to Linda Simmons, curator at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, states that Quarry was indeed one of the three Loper paintings purchased by I.B.M. from the exhibition; in NGA curatorial files.