LINCROFT: A HEAVYWEIGHT ART HOMECOMING
Renowned sculptor and former Brookdale Community College professorA. Thomas Schomberg with his most famous commission, Philly’s statue of Sly Stallone’s ROCKY character.
It’s one of the truly iconic sculpted figures of our modern era — and as befits the media-driven age we live in, the subject isn’t a deity from ancient mythology, nor a Biblical figure, celebrated general or deep-pocketed solid citizen: it’s a bronze likeness of Sylvester Stallone, gloved fists pumping in an evocation of the role that made him a star, underdog boxer Rocky Balboa.
The statue situated just off the famed “Rocky Steps” of the Philadelphia Museum of Art is but the most famous commission (one of two, actually; the two-ton Rocky has a twin at the San Diego Sports Museum) for A. Thomas Schomberg, an internationally renowned sculptor, educator and, for a time in the 1970s, faculty member at the Lincroft campus of Brookdale Community College. Schomberg returns to BCC as special guest for a 7 pm talk on Monday, October 12 — part of “We/Re/E-merge,” a new exhibition of works by current and former Brookdale personnel that opens with a free public-welcome reception this Friday, October 9.