Virgil Abloh's Influence on Contemporary Art
Virgil Abloh, designer of the luxury brand's menswear collection Louis Vuitton and founder of Off white, passed away on November 28, at the age of 41 from cancer. He was responsible for changing the fashion industry, having extended this influence to the world of visual arts as well. After the tragic news was shared, through Virgil Abloh's instagram, several celebrities declared their affection and appreciation for the artist. Notably, the editor in chief of British Vogue referred that the designer was "a giant among men"who always worked"to open the door to art and fashion for future generations, so that they -- unlike themselves, would grow up in a creative world with people to mirror themselves in."
Who was Virgil Abloh?
The designer was born in Rockford, Illinois, on September 30, 1980, studied civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master's degree in architecture at the Institute of Technology in Illinois. Virgil Abloh began his fashion career as an intern at Fendi's Rome office in 2009, where he met rapper Kanye West, also an intern there. That same year, he opened a retail store in Chicago called RSVP Gallery and in 2012, he founded Pyrex Vision -projects conceived as an artistic experience as well as a commercial venture.
In 2018, Virgil Abloh became the artistic director of Louis Vuitton. With her collection that pushed artistic boundaries and challenged gender norms, she captured the interest of a younger demographic. His menswear collections, whether at Louis Vuitton or at the brand he founded Off-White, blurred the lines between haute couture and streetwear. Thus, he was considered one of the pioneers of street fashion or “post-streetwear movement” - a trend with roots in classic streetwear that comes from hip-hop. This trend created by Virgil Abloh has contaminated other luxury houses since the Balenciaga, gucci, to dior, who started collaborating on limited editions with sports brands such as Nike and the Supreme. Thus, products such as Air Jordans from the Nike in collaboration with Dior.
In the world of music, he was present as a DJ and for collaborating with his longtime friend, Kanye West on his albums and other artistic projects. In 2010, Kanye West appointed Virgil Abloh as his creative director, and two years later, the American designer founded the high-end streetwear brand Off white. As an artist and furniture designer, he collaborated with several companies such as Nike, Ikea, Chrome Hearts, Mercedes Benz and Jimmy Choo.
It wasn't just in runway that Virgil Abloh has become an influential name, but also in the world of contemporary art. The designer has produced individual and group exhibitions with several contemporary artists, where creative innovations and numerous references to figures from the history of art, such as the French Dadaist Marcel Duchamp, are evident. In 2016, Virgil Abloh in collaboration with conceptual artist Jenny Holzer, created a line that highlighted immigration and cultural exchange in a positive and uplifting way. In 2018, during Paris Fashion Week, at Gagosian inaugurated “TECHNICOLOR 2”, in collaboration with the artist Takashi Murakami. In 2019, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presented Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech, an exhibition that was so successful that it transferred to Atlanta's High Museum of Art and then to the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston and the Museum of Art. Brooklyn.
In 2021, he launched an exclusive collection for the exhibition The Costume Institute, In America: A Lexicon of Fashion at the MET, with influence on the work “This is not a pipe" by René Magritte. fantastic figures, inspired several of Abloh's pieces, namely the clothes and therunway from the 2020 Louis Vuitton men's collection.
The clothes designed by the designer always included several references to influential Italian paintings, such as the Mona Lisa of Leonardo da Vinci and the Piazza d'Italia by Giorgio de Chirico. The artist mentioned in several interviews that his first collection at Off-White was inspired by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's floating glass house, Farnsworth House. The American designer has also designed furniture, and in June 2019 he signed a contract with Parisian studio Galerie Kreo. He has exhibited his furniture pieces at Design Miami, Dark Fantasy at the UTA Artist Space in LA, and at Carpenter's Workshop Gallery, which operated alongside the 2019 Venice Biennale. In addition, he has also launched his own furniture line with the design firm Vitra. Through his artwork, luxury pieces and re-imagined streetwear, Virgil Abloh changed fashion culture forever by deconstructing the norms of culture, art history, trends, graphic design and luxury brands themselves. .
