Every day, visitors from around the world make their way to the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art—not necessarily for the galleries inside, but for a statue of a fictional boxer from South Philadelphia. The bronze figure of Rocky Balboa—arms raised in victory, clad in boxing trunks and boots—has become a point of pilgrimage for people around the world. For decades, the museum kept an uncomfortable distance from this kind of devotion. Now, it’s embracing it, and inviting Rocky in. Opening this weekend, “Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments” examines how a fictional fighter became a real-world symbol, placing the statue within the sweep of art history and Philadelphia’s identity, per the AP.
The exhibition is the brainchild of guest curator Paul Farber, who spent years exploring the meaning of the statue and public monuments, including via his NPR podcasts, before bringing the conversation into the museum. The exhibition spans more than 2,000 years of boxing imagery, tracing a thread of human struggle that Louis Marchesano, the museum’s deputy director of curatorial affairs and conservation, said helps explain Rocky’s enduring pull. “It’s not simply about watching two people beat each other up—it’s about endurance, internal fortitude, and internal struggle,” Marchesano noted.
When the bronze statue was left on the museum’s steps after the Rocky movies were filmed, the museum fought to have it removed. It was eventually relocated to South Philadelphia before returning to the bottom of the steps in 2006. It was welcomed back but never fully embraced. The city owns the spot where the statue sits, not the museum. “The museum has had—and I hate to say this, no pun intended—a rocky relationship with the statue,” Marchesano said.
According to the Philadelphia Visitor Center, about 4 million people visit the steps each year, rivaling the nearby Liberty Bell in annual foot traffic. When the exhibition closes in August, the statue inside will move to a permanent home at the top of the museum’s steps—a place it has never officially held. The statue currently outside remains on loan from Sylvester Stallone, the actor who played Rocky in the films. The statue’s longtime spot at the bottom of the steps won’t stay empty: A statue of Joe Frazier, whose real-life story at least partially inspired Rocky, will replace it. “It took us decades to come to terms with it,” Marchesano added. “But I’m glad that we did.”
