Exhibitions
Rising Up: Rocky and the Construction of Contemporary Monuments
Why do millions of people from all over the world still make the pilgrimage each year to the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art to take pictures next to the Rocky Balboa statue? That is the question that articulates Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments , the Philadelphia Museum of Art's new major exhibition, a show that examines the cultural power of contemporary monuments and the way in which societies project their aspirations onto popular figures.
Photo by Carles Toribio.
The exhibition, curated by guest curator Paul Farber, offers a journey through more than two thousand years of visual history surrounding boxing, celebrity, and the public representation of the hero. Classical sculptures from antiquity, 19th-century European paintings, photographs from the golden age of American boxing, and contemporary artworks engage in dialogue to show how fighters have been transformed into social, political, and cultural symbols.
At the heart of the exhibit is the famous Rocky statue, moved inside the museum for the first time, along with objects and materials related to its creation. What began as a film prop for the saga starring Sylvester Stallone ended up becoming a genuine piece of public art and one of the most photographed monuments in the United States.
Keith Haring, Potrait of a Macho Camacho, 1985, Keith Haring Foundation.
The exhibition brings together more than 150 works by more than 50 artists, including Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Glenn Ligon, Hank Willis Thomas and Lisa Brice, who revisit the history of boxing and fame from perspectives linked to race, gender, representation and media culture.
Beyond cinematic nostalgia, Rising Up reflects on the values that audiences project onto Rocky: the figure of the underdog who perseveres, the resilience in the face of adversity, and the capacity for overcoming challenges. The exhibition explores how these ideals are not born solely from film, but also from real stories of social struggle, migration, work, and collective aspiration.
Royce Jarvey, 2024, Maria Hupfield, courtesy of Patel Brown and the artist.
The project is accompanied by a publication edited by Farber that includes contributions from Pennsylvania-based artist Alex Da Corte, former Philadelphia Eagles player and Super Bowl champion Malcolm Jenkins, and renowned film critic Carrie Rickey.
Farber, born in Philadelphia, has dedicated much of his career to the study of monuments and public memory. In addition to directing the organization Monument Lab, he hosts the podcast The Statue , produced by NPR/WHYY, where he explores the political and cultural significance of sculptures and memorials in urban spaces.
Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments can be visited until August 2nd and is shaping up to be one of the most unique exhibitions of the year: a reflection on how popular heroes, even fictional ones, end up occupying a real place in the emotional memory of cities.
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