But media outlets around the world continue to misunderstand the significance of the wide steps, repeatedly referring to them as the "Rocky Steps" here, here, here, here and elsewhere.
While 55% of those surveyed approve of the proposal, the media is inadvertently driving art lovers to embrace the alterations by failing to point out how significant these steps were long before Rocky ever made his first run.
This isn't the first time that the art community has clashed with fans of the 1976 movie. About ten years ago, a bronze statue from Rocky III was returned to the art museum. Fans wanted it placed atop the steps while the art community wanted nothing to do with it. A compromise was reached and the statue now stands just north of the first step.
The steps have become synonymous with a movie that has nothing to do with art, and the art community has forgotten that the setting was merely chosen because of what it represents. Rocky didn't invent the "Rocky Steps," the steps inspired the character and his audience. While the statue truly is a studio prop, the steps are not a Hollywood set to be discarded or forgotten.
The wide span of the steps are as dramatic as the building itself. A deliberate architectural element forcing visitors to overcome an obstacle before reaching our city's vast temple of art, a feat shared by those worshipping atop the Acropolis over 2000 years ago. The steps curve ever so slightly to create the same optical illusion as the steps of the Parthenon it emulates, making them look even taller than they are.
The building itself, including the steps, is one of the museum's greatest works of art.
Gehry should know this. He is, after all, an architect. His proposed window may provide grand views of a city built independently of Philadelphia's Acropolis, and those views are also available from the top of the steps.
No one would dare allow the priceless paintings and sculptures within our temple to be altered with cluttered modernism and the same reverence needs to be applied to the work of art that holds them all. Disrupting this passage with anything would make the Philadelphia Museum of Art just another art museum, and that has nothing to do with Rocky Balboa.
I couldn't agree with you more, and am also opposed to Gehry's plan to turn the unfinished pediments into glass skyboxes to provide better views for wealthy donors holding events in the museum. I've started a Facebook page of people who want the steps left alone, and the pediments finished instead of ruined. Please check it out - https://www.facebook.com/SavethePhillyMuseumofArt
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm glad others recognize that the significance of these steps extends well beyond Rocky. I joined your Facebook page and it looks like it's growing.
DeleteThanks, Wes. I appreciate you joining the Facebook page.
DeleteI have one question about Gehry's plan. Do you know if he is proposing to turn the old fountains along side the steps into glass in order to allow more light into the new galleries? Any thoughts as to whether instead we could get the fountains turned back on?
I'm pretty sure those fountains are on the museum's shortlist to be turned back on. They might still be functional. Some pretty cool pics of those fountains in the 70s here: http://philly.curbed.com/archives/2012/08/23/remember-swimming-in-the-art-museum-fountains.php
DeleteThat's great to hear, and thanks for the link. Do you have any idea why the fountains were turned off to begin with?
DeleteI don't know. I've been in Philly more than ten years and I've never seen them on. I don't know if they're budgeted by the city or the museum itself. I'm guessing they need repairs. They may simply be waiting for all of Gehry's work to be finished. So expect them back on sometime around the Tricentennial celebration :P
DeleteHere's what I wrote about the steps in my latest book (it's an Arcadia postcard history book on the Ben Franklin Parkway, due out next week): The top of the art museum's front steps offer a commanding view of the Parkway and the Philadelphia skyline. While already exceptional, the 72 stone steps achieved worldwide prominence with the 1976 release of the film Rocky. Since then, visitors from all corners of the globe have come to run triumphantly up the ascent as Sylvester Stallone did in his Oscar-winning movie (and four of its sequels). In March 2014, Rocky was shown inside the museum for the first time.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to getting your book when it comes out. Always enjoy your stuff on Hidden City.
DeleteRocky or not, I think once this proposal becomes more solid and more popularly available, people are going to come out in droves to save the steps.
At least I hope so.
http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/9781467121538/Benjamin-Franklin-Parkway-The
ReplyDelete