St. Louis Gallery Expands to Entire Floor for Boccia Retrospective

Visitors to the Central West End can now view a comprehensive survey of Edward E. Boccia’s career in a single location. The exhibition, titled Edward E. Boccia: An American Modernist, opens on October 23 with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. It will run through December 19. This marks a rare expansion for the venue.

Philip Slein Gallery, located at 4735 McPherson, has operated for 23 years. For most of that time, the business used only its front room for individual artist shows. For this exhibition, the gallery occupies its entire space. Gallery owner Philip Slein described the scale of the project. “This is a very significant show,” Slein said. “The only thing that could be bigger than this would be at an institution.”

Boccia lived in St. Louis for six decades. He was born in New Jersey in 1921 to Italian parents. He served in the World War II Ghost Army and studied at the Pratt Institute and the Art Students League in New York. He earned degrees from Columbia University after returning from the war. He taught at the Columbus Art School in Ohio before moving to St. Louis.

Washington University in St. Louis hired Boccia in 1951. He remained there for more than 30 years. He retired in 1986 with the title of professor emeritus. Rosa Berland, an art historian and curator based in New York, noted his teaching style. She described it as rigorous but open to students finding “their own kind of fire.”

The artist produced thousands of paintings during his lifetime. His work ranged from small seaside scenes to large multi-panel pieces. His style combined classical traditions with experimental techniques. He continued painting until his death in 2012 at age 91. Slein recalled the artist’s work ethic. “If he wasn't sleeping or eating, he was drawing,” Slein said.

The exhibition features more than 30 paintings. The front room displays large-scale works. These include the nine-panel autobiographical polyptych “Eugene's Journey.” The room also holds the 2004 triptych “David's Death,” which is part of a series meditating on the death of Boccia’s son. A hallway displays mythic scenes of ocean journeys and figures that appear to emit inner light.

The final room features a salon wall. This arrangement traces Boccia’s artistic evolution from a 1950s portrait to a work painted in 2012. The display includes echoes of Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, René Magritte, Renaissance masters, and St. Louis figure Max Beckmann.

A companion book will be published by Hirmer during the exhibition. The volume, titled Edward E. Boccia: Painter of Nightmares and Dreams, is the first major monograph on the artist. Berland wrote the book after 14 years of research. It contains dozens of images, including fold-out plates that show the scale of his multi-panel paintings. It also includes scholarly essays and historical overviews.

Berland described Boccia as a polymath who studied philosophy, theology, psychoanalysis, and history. She credited Morton D. May as his greatest patron. May’s art collection was gifted in part to the Saint Louis Art Museum. Berland characterized the artist’s career as a story of a kid from New York who found success in St. Louis.

The exhibition requires active engagement from viewers. Berland stated that the work demands attention on several levels. She compared the experience to reading a poem or a philosophical text. “We don't slow down anymore,” she said. The show remains open to the public through December 19.