Oil on canvas, signed lower right. Still life with a pear, orange, egg, plate, and fish.About the Artist: The post war Italian American painter Edward E. Boccia was born 1921 New Jersey – died 2012 St. Louis, Missouri. Boccia is best known for his large-scale panel painting depicting contemporary life and religious iconography. While he was a classically trained painter with roots in the Italian Renaissance Boccia had a distinctly modern flair. He taught at the Washington University in St. Louis for over 30 years and served as a Dean at the Columbus Art School where he taught in the Bauhaus

method.Edward Boccia,member of the covert Ghost Army during WWII, is considered to be part of the St. Louis artist community centered around expatriates and Washington University during the war and postwar period, including luminaries such as the collectors Joseph Pulitzer and Morton May, the art historian H.W. Janson, curator Perry Rathbone, as well as the painters Philip Guston, Stephen Green and Max Beckmann among others. Boccia was a favorite of the prestigious art collector Morton D. May, the top American collector of German Expressionism.Boccia’s lifetime oeuvre showcases various stylistic modes, including formal experiments in Abstraction, Neo-Expressionist, Expressionist, Magical Realism, Surrealist, and contemporary religious painting. The most important works include approximately 15 large scale multi-panel paintings depicting various scenes with motifs of Catholicism, contemporary mid-century life, mythology, and personal narratives. The triptych is the most common format, and almost all the pictures are characterized by the use of grotesque imagery, motifs from the Passion of Christ, and puzzling hybrids of modern life and Greco-Roman myths. Formal education and training and other professional influences such as individual artists: Edward E. Boccia earned his BFA, Pratt Institute, New York; MA, Columbia University; served as Dean, Fine Art, Columbus School of Art, Ohio; and Professor of Fine Art, Washington University in St. Louis. Boccia was recruited by Ken Hudson to work for Washington University, St. Louis, following in the footsteps of former faculty members such as Philip Guston, Stephen Greene and Max Beckmann whose work would be a major influence. Boccia’s primary patron, Morton D. May, held the most important American collection of German Expressionism which Boccia was given frequent and unrestricted access. Geographical areas of special interest to the artist's career included St. Louis, Missouri, Rome, Italy, New York, New York. Art Movements of special influence included German Expressionism, namely the work of Max Beckmann, Emile Nolde, the work of Paul Cezanne, Northern Italian Renaissance, American Modernism including the work of Joseph Stella. Special Awards include The Cavaliere Al Merito Della Repubblica;Italy knighted the artist; and the Italian government chose Boccia for the prestigious Borso di Studio. In 1990, Saint Louis University bestowed upon him membership in the Order of the Crown of King St. Louis IX. Boccia has been in the subject of 50 + solo exhibitions and his work may be found in over 600 private collections and more than 100 public collections including:Dartmouth College museum, Hanover, New HampshireDenver Art Museum, Denver, ColoradoWilbur D. May Museum, Reno, NevadaDrury College Museum, Springfield, MissouriFontbonne University Museum, St. Louis, MissouriKansas State College Museum, Manhattan, KansasJoe and Emily Lowe Gallery, University of Miami, Miami, FloridaThe Lowe Art Museum, The University of Miami, Coral Gables, FloridaThe National Picture Gallery and Alexander Soutsous Museum, Athens, GreeceThe Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MissouriThe Margaret Harwell Art Museum, Poplar Bluff, MissouriThe Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University, St. Louis, MissouriMuseu De Montserrat, Montserrat, SpainThe Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FloridaThe Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, St. LouisSeton Hall University Museum, South Orange, New JerseyThe St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MissouriThe St. Louis University Museum of Art, St. Louis, MissouriThe State Historical Society of Missouri Art Gallery, Columbia, MissouriFlorissant Valley Community College Art Museum, St. Louis, MissouriSt. Bonaventure University Museum, St. Bonaventure, New YorkSources include:E. Boccia: A Retrospective Exhibition, Catalog, October 30 – December 8, 1960, St. Louis University, M. B. McNamee, Editor, 1960.A Galaxy of Treasures from St. Louis Collections, Collection Catalog, January 18 – February 12, 1961, City Art Museum of St. Louis, 1961.An Artist Views the Evolution of Exchange and the Rise of Banking in the Mississippi Valley, First National Bank in St. Louis, 1966.Ten Missouri Painters, Exhibition Catalog, Missouri State Council on the Arts, 1968.Edward Boccia: A Ten-Year Retrospective 1959-1969, Exhibition Catalog, September 6 –28, 1969, Spanish International Pavilion, St. Louis.Edward E. Boccia, Dada Gallery, Exhibition Catalog, Athens, Greece, 1981.Edward E. Boccia: A Retrospective, Exhibition Catalog, April 23 – May 29, 1983, Catalog, Mitchell Museum, Mt. Vernon Illinois.Boccia: The Triptychs, December 8, 1985 – January 5, 1986, Exhibition Catalog, School of Fine Arts, Washington University/Art St. Louis II, Thompson Center, Exhibition Catalog, St. Louis Artists Coalition, 1986.Nexus – Generations of the Artistic Spirit, Exhibition Catalog, October 29, 1995 – January 14, 1996, St. Louis Artist’ Guild.Halpert, V. B. Continuing Tradition: Doubly Gifted Artists, February 5 – May 30, 1999, Atelier A/E, New York.Edward Boccia, Exhibition March 23 – April 16, 2000, Dresser Foundation Gallery, The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, St. Louis.Edward E. Boccia: A Retrospective, Exhibition Catalog, McCaughen & Burr Fine Arts Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri, 2005Boccia and Friends, A Spring Drawing Exhibition, Catalog, April 14 – April 28, 2007, McCaughen & Burr Fine Arts Gallery, St. Louis.Good Friday, Exhibition Catalog, February 15 – April 26, 2009, Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, St. Louis University.Ed Boccia: Multi-Paneled Paintings, Exhibition Catalog, September 8 – October 3, 2010, Boyle Family Gallery, Lindenwood University, St. Charles, Missouri.Friedman Hamilton, Lynn. Maturity and Its Muse, Exhibition Catalog, October 1, 2010 – February 5, 2011, Sheldon Art Galleries & Nancy Spirtas Kranzberg Gallery, St. Louis.Berland, Rosa JH, Alice Boccia and Petra Lipan. Edward Boccia: Figurative Expressionist, Exhibition Catalog, January 18 – March 3, 2013, St. Louis University Museum of Art.Berland, Rosa JH. “New Research, Recently Discovered Artwork by the American Painter: Edward E. Boccia, St. Louis (1921-2012).” Forma Revista d’Humanitats, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Summer 2015.Berland, Rosa JH. “Cezanne’s Apple and Edward E. Boccia. Hierarchy, Revolt and Artistic Innovation in Twentieth Century America.” Ekphrasis Journal. Images, Cinema, Theatre, Media. Babe?-Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania, Summer 2015.Andrew Lipstein interviews Rosa JH Berland about Edward E. Boccia in Meural, Deep Cuts, June 21, 2016. Episode 6. Sight: 31.5" height, 47.5" width; frame: 38.25" height, 54.25" width