St. Louis gallery fills every room with painter's career

For the first time in its 23-year history, Philip Slein Gallery in the Central West End is dedicating its entire footprint to a single artist. The exhibition, titled Edward E. Boccia: An American Modernist, opens with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 23, and remains on view through Dec. 19.

The gallery at 4735 McPherson Avenue usually restricts individual shows to the front room. For this survey of the late St. Louis painter, however, the owner Philip Slein filled every available wall. Slein called the display a major event, noting that only a museum institution could mount something larger.

Boccia was born in New Jersey in 1921 to Italian parents. He studied at Pratt Institute, the Art Students League, and Columbia University, and served in the World War II Ghost Army. He taught at Columbus Art School in Ohio before joining Washington University in St. Louis in 1951. He remained at the university for more than three decades, retiring in 1986 as professor emeritus.

Curator Rosa Berland, based in New York, described Boccia’s teaching style as rigorous but encouraging of individual expression. She said he allowed students to find their own creative drive. Boccia produced thousands of paintings throughout his life, ranging from small coastal scenes to large multi-panel works. He continued creating art until his death in 2012 at age 91.

Slein observed that Boccia was constantly working, saying if he was not sleeping or eating, he was drawing. The current exhibition features more than 30 paintings that span his career. The front room contains his largest pieces, including the nine-panel autobiographical work Eugene's Journey and the 2004 triptych David's Death, which meditates on the loss of his son.

A hallway display features mythic ocean scenes and figures that appear to glow from within. The final room uses a salon wall arrangement to trace his artistic evolution, moving from a 1950s portrait to a painting made in 2012, shortly before his death. The collection shows influences from Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, René Magritte, Renaissance masters, and St. Louis artist Max Beckmann.

Hirmer will publish a companion book titled Edward E. Boccia: Painter of Nightmares and Dreams during the exhibition run. Berland wrote the text after 14 years of research, making it the first major monograph on the artist. The volume includes dozens of images, several fold-out plates of his large works, and scholarly essays.

Berland described Boccia as a polymath who studied philosophy, theology, psychoanalysis, and history. She credited Morton D. May, whose collection was partly gifted to the Saint Louis Art Museum, as his greatest patron. A pamphlet prepared for the show quotes Boccia as saying not to worry about what his art means, but to simply experience it. Berland said the work demands a level of engagement that modern life rarely allows, comparing it to reading a poem or philosophical text.