The Philadelphia Art Museum is preparing a new exhibit on monuments — with a special emphasis on the one outside its doors.
In the spring, the institute will spotlight the Rocky statue, exploring its wider context through artwork from the past 2,000 years. “Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments” will feature over 150 pieces from figures like Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, Carrie Mae Weems and Hank Willis Thomas, as well as artists from Mural Arts’ restorative justice program. Visitors can expect to see ancient Greek pottery and portraits of real-life boxers like Joe Frazier and Hector “Macho” Camacho.
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The collection will demonstrate “how monuments are made and remade by artists, by communities and by time, opening the door for conversations on deeper themes of memory, identity, power, and representation in public art,” the museum said in a release.
“Rising Up” will run April 25 through Aug. 2, ahead of the 50th anniversary of the original “Rocky” film. Writer and historian Paul Farber, who hosted the six-part WHYY podcast on the Rocky statue, guest curated the exhibit.
The 8-foot bronze sculpture has bounced around Philadelphia since 1982, when “Rocky” star Sylvester Stallone gifted it to the city. The statue, a prop from “Rocky III,” initially sparked considerable debate among residents, some of whom did not see it as a legitimate piece of public art. But it was eventually accepted and installed at the former Spectrum sports complex. It moved to the PhAM entrance along Benjamin Franklin Parkway in 2006, where it remains today.
The statue and the stone staircase leading up to art museum’s East Entrance — the so-called “Rocky steps” that Stallone’s hero climbs in the franchise’s well-known montage — are some of the top tourist attractions in Philadelphia. An estimated 4 million tourists check out the Rocky statue each year, more than twice as many who visit the Liberty Bell.
“The steps outside the museum are a site of pilgrimage and the ultimate people’s pedestal,” Farber said in a statement. “‘Rising Up’ asks why millions of people each year visit a statue of the most famous Philadelphian who never lived as a way to better understand our complex and vital relationships to our public monuments.”
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