Boccia Retrospective: 30 Paintings Fill Every Room

More than 30 paintings fill every available wall at 4735 McPherson Avenue. The exhibition, titled Edward E. Boccia: An American Modernist, opens on Thursday, October 23, with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. and runs through December 19. This is the first time in the gallery's 23-year history that it has dedicated its entire space to a single artist.

Gallery owner Philip Slein noted that the scale of the display is exceptional for a commercial space. "The only thing that could be bigger than this would be at an institution," Slein said. The show spans three distinct areas, moving from large-scale works in the front room to a salon wall in the back that traces the artist's career from the 1950s to 2012.

The front room features Boccia's most recognized large-scale pieces. Among them are the nine-panel autobiographical polyptych "Eugene's Journey" and the 2004 triptych "David's Death." The latter is one of several works Boccia produced following the death of his son. A connecting hallway displays mythic scenes of ocean journeys and figures that appear to emit their own inner light.

Edward E. Boccia was born in New Jersey in 1921 to Italian parents. He studied at the Pratt Institute, the Art Students League, and Columbia University. He served in the World War II Ghost Army before joining the faculty at Washington University in St. Louis in 1951. He taught there for more than 30 years and retired in 1986 as professor emeritus.

Art historian Rosa Berland, who is based in New York, described Boccia's teaching style as rigorous but encouraging. She said he wanted students to find "their own kind of fire." Berland spent 14 years researching the artist for a companion book, Edward E. Boccia: Painter of Nightmares and Dreams, which will be published by Hirmer during the exhibition.

The book is the first major monograph on Boccia and includes dozens of images and scholarly essays. Berland credited Morton D. May, whose collection was partially gifted to the Saint Louis Art Museum, as Boccia's greatest patron. She described the artist's career as the story of a kid from New York who found success in St. Louis.

Boccia produced thousands of paintings over a career that spanned six decades in St. Louis. He died in 2012 at age 91. Slein recalled that the artist was constantly working. "If he wasn't sleeping or eating, he was drawing," Slein said. Berland said the work demands engagement on multiple levels. "We don't slow down anymore," she said.

The exhibition highlights influences from Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, René Magritte, Renaissance masters, and St. Louis artist Max Beckmann. The pamphlet prepared for the show includes a quote from Boccia: "Don't worry about what my art means. Just experience it."