Edward Boccia's Career Spans Three Rooms in Gallery's Biggest Show Yet

Visitors entering the gallery at 4735 McPherson Avenue on October 23 will find every wall occupied. For the first time in its 23-year history, the space has broken from its standard practice of using only the front room for individual exhibitions. Instead, the entire facility is dedicated to the career 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 and runs through December 19. It features more than 30 paintings that span the artist's entire professional life. Gallery owner Philip Slein described the scale of the presentation as exceptional. "This is a very significant show," Slein said. "The only thing that could be bigger than this would be at an institution."

Boccia was born in New Jersey in 1921 to Italian parents. After serving in the World War II Ghost Army and studying at the Pratt Institute and the Art Students League, he earned degrees from Columbia University. He taught at the Columbus Art School in Ohio before joining Washington University in St. Louis in 1951. He remained at the university for more than 30 years, retiring in 1986 as a professor emeritus. He continued painting until his death in 2012 at age 91. Slein noted the artist's relentless output, stating, "If he wasn't sleeping or eating, he was drawing."

The exhibition layout mirrors the timeline of his career. The front room contains large-scale pieces, including the nine-panel polyptych "Eugene's Journey" and the 2004 triptych "David's Death." A hallway displays mythic ocean scenes, while the final room features a salon wall that traces his stylistic evolution from a 1950s portrait to a work completed in 2012.

Rosa Berland, a New York-based art historian and curator, served as the author of the show's companion book. Her work, "Edward E. Boccia: Painter of Nightmares and Dreams," is the first major monograph on the artist. It was published by Hirmer during the exhibition run and includes 14 years of research. Berland characterized Boccia as a polymath who studied philosophy, theology, psychoanalysis, and history.

The artist preferred his work to remain open to interpretation rather than didactic. A pamphlet prepared for the show includes his instruction: "Don't worry about what my art means. Just experience it." Berland credited Morton D. May, whose collection was partially gifted to the Saint Louis Art Museum, as Boccia's greatest patron. She described the career as "really a story of a kid from New York who found success in St. Louis."