30 Paintings Fill All Rooms of Slein Gallery for Boccia Retrospective

Visitors to Philip Slein Gallery in the Central West End will find a different experience this week. The gallery at 4735 McPherson has opened its doors to a career retrospective of Edward E. Boccia. The show, titled Edward E. Boccia: An American Modernist, opens with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. on October 23. It runs through December 19.

The gallery has existed for 23 years. It has rarely devoted its entire space to a single artist. Usually, the gallery uses only the front room for individual shows. For Boccia, the walls of all three rooms are filled. Gallery owner Philip Slein said this is a very significant show. He noted that only an institutional venue could host something bigger.

Boccia was born in New Jersey in 1921 to Italian parents. He served in the World War II Ghost Army. He studied at the Pratt Institute and the Art Students League in New York. He earned degrees from Columbia University after the war. He taught at the Columbus Art School in Ohio, where he introduced Bauhaus sensibilities to his students.

Washington University in St. Louis hired him in 1951. He stayed for more than 30 years. He retired in 1986 with the title of professor emeritus. Rosa Berland is an art historian, curator, and author based in New York. She described his teaching as rigorous but open. She said he encouraged students to find their own kind of fire.

Boccia produced thousands of paintings. His work ranged from small seaside scenes to monumental multi-panel pieces. His style draws on classical traditions while remaining experimental. His surreal scenes are rich in symbolism and storytelling. He worked until his death in 2012 at age 91. Slein said that if Boccia was not sleeping or eating, he was drawing.

The exhibition features more than 30 paintings. The front room holds the large-scale pieces for which he is best known. This includes the nine-panel autobiographical polyptych Eugene's Journey. It also includes the 2004 triptych David's Death, a meditation on the death of his son. A hallway displays mythic scenes of ocean journeys. Figures in these works appear to emit their own inner light.

The final room features a salon wall. It traces his evolution from a 1950s portrait to a work painted in 2012. That final piece was created shortly before his death. Echoes of Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, René Magritte, Renaissance masters, and Max Beckmann appear throughout the show.

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

Berland called Boccia a polymath who studied philosophy, theology, psychoanalysis, and history. She said he did not want his work to be didactic or formulaic. A pamphlet prepared for the show reads, Don't worry about what my art means. Just experience it. Berland credited Morton D. May as Boccia's greatest patron. May's art collection was gifted in part to the Saint Louis Art Museum.

Berland said this is really a story of a kid from New York who found success in St. Louis. She said such work matters now because it demands engagement on several levels. She compared the experience to reading a poem or a philosophical text. She noted that we do not slow down anymore.