Pennsylvania German Fireback c. 1939

Edward L. Loper rendered this Pennsylvania German Fireback with what seems like a real love for the textures and the history embedded in the object. You can really see the hand of the artist here, mimicking the hand of the maker, so to speak. There’s something about the brown monochrome that really speaks to me. It gives the whole image a feeling of something aged, dug up, or perhaps a memory. It’s as if Loper is trying to get at the spirit of the fireback itself. The work has an almost sculptural quality. Look at the way Loper captures the rough edges, the cracks, and the worn surfaces of the original, it's all about the process, about time and touch. The inscription, that looping text and those tulip motifs are like runes or glyphs. It's the kind of thing you might see in a Guston painting! Like him, Loper seems to be drawing on a deep well of cultural memory here. It’s this quality that makes the piece sing and feel so timeless, even today.