Slein Gallery hosts Edward Boccia retrospective in all three rooms

More than 30 paintings from a six-decade career fill every room of the Philip Slein Gallery in the Central West End. The exhibition, titled Edward E. Boccia: An American Modernist, marks the first time in the gallery’s 23-year history that its entire space has been devoted to a single artist. The show opens with a reception on October 23 from 5 to 8 p.m. and continues through December 19.

Gallery owner Philip Slein noted that the gallery typically reserves its front room for individual shows. For this retrospective, the walls at 4735 McPherson Avenue are occupied by works spanning Boccia's entire professional life. Slein described the exhibition as a major undertaking, stating that only a large institutional venue could host a larger display. "The only thing that could be bigger than this would be at an institution," he said.

Edward E. Boccia was born in New Jersey in 1921 to Italian parents. He served in the World War II Ghost Army before studying at the Pratt Institute and the Art Students League in New York. He later earned degrees from Columbia University. Boccia taught at the Columbus Art School in Ohio, where he introduced Bauhaus principles to his students. He joined Washington University in St. Louis in 1951 and served as a professor for more than 30 years, retiring in 1986 as professor emeritus.

Art historian and author Rosa Berland, who is based in New York, characterized Boccia's teaching style as rigorous while encouraging students to find their own creative direction. Boccia produced thousands of paintings during his life, ranging from small seaside scenes to large multi-panel works. His style blended classical traditions with experimental surrealism. He continued working until his death in 2012 at age 91. Slein recalled that Boccia drew constantly whenever he was not sleeping or eating.

The exhibition features large-scale pieces in the front room, including the nine-panel polyptych "Eugene's Journey" and the 2004 triptych "David's Death," a meditation on the death of Boccia's son. A hallway displays mythic scenes of ocean journeys and luminous figures. The final room contains a salon wall that traces his artistic evolution from a 1950s portrait to a painting made in 2012. Influences from Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, René Magritte, and Max Beckmann are visible throughout the collection.

A companion book, Edward E. Boccia: Painter of Nightmares and Dreams, will be published by Hirmer during the exhibition run. Berland spent 14 years researching the text, which is the first major monograph on the artist. The book includes scholarly essays, historical overviews, and fold-out plates that show the scale of his multi-panel works. Berland credited Morton D. May, whose collection was partly gifted to the Saint Louis Art Museum, as Boccia's greatest patron. She described Boccia as a polymath who studied philosophy, theology, psychoanalysis, and history, yet preferred his art to remain open to interpretation. "We don't slow down anymore," Berland said, comparing the viewing experience to reading a poem or philosophical text.