Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech

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With his course coming full circle, Abloh is looking to help a new generation by diagramming his journey in a museum—something he never thought would’ve happened a couple of decades ago, much less be useful to anyone else. More than a catalog, Figures of Speech is a 500-page user’s manual to Abloh's genre-bending work in art, fashion and design. Courtesy of the Virgil Abloh ArchiveAbloh designed the album art for Kanye West’s sixth album, Yeezus (2013), while working for the musician.

This fall, the High presents the first museum exhibition devoted to the work of Virgil Abloh, the modern, genre-bending artist and designer who became creative director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear in 2018. Abloh’s trajectory from outsider to creative director at one of the world’s preeminent fashion houses is evident throughout the exhibition.I think, fundamentally, what Virgil was about was the breaking down of hierarchies in the creative disciplines to make sure that there were folks who had access that hadn't previously had access to different forms of making," said Sargent. The immediate and improvised nature of the COVID shutdown in the spring of 2020 did not only bring to light systemic justice problems, but created new ones too.

Abloh enlisted contemporary artist Jenny Holzer to create video projections of poems about the refugees’ plight. Question everything—that’s the train of thought we have as architects,” says Bantal, who’s a trained architect himself. The structure itself, which invites people to enter and explore the “art,” rather than view it from a distance, is in line with Abloh’s tradition of challenging establishment norms.This authoritative Virgil Abloh compendium, created by the designer himself, accompanies his acclaimed landmark 2019-23 touring exhibition and offers in-depth analysis of his career and his inspirations. Follow the pages in the book to understand the trajectory of my career and my thinking process throughout the years. The works on view will offer an in-depth look at the defining highlights of Abloh’s career, including his recent designs for Louis Vuitton menswear collection, video documentation of his most iconic fashion shows, and his distinctive furniture and graphic design work.

Functional Art" is Abloh's polished chrome version of Dieter Rams' 1965 Wandanlage wall-mounted stereo made for Braun.Harland Exhibition Endowment Fund, Katherine Murphy Riley Special Exhibition Endowment Fund, Margaretta Taylor Exhibition Fund, and the RJR Nabisco Exhibition Endowment Fund. In 2013, Abloh founded his stand-alone fashion brand Off-White™ in Milan, Italy, and, in 2018, assumed the position of artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear. Yet, unlike typical exhibits, there is barely any signage accompanying the pieces, as if inviting viewers to be a “ tourist or a purist,” a point of view that Abloh employed during his design process. In tandem with the exhibition opening, Abloh and the MCA launched a design challenge for Chicago-area artists aged 14 through 21. The house sits at the heart of the exhibition and incorporates some of the museum's large, structural columns into its own structure.

As the notes go on to explain, “The relentless process of making, testing, remaking, and retesting is part of the fashion industry and was central to Abloh’s way of working across disciplines. The exhibition is an iteration of Abloh's first solo show, which was originally organised in Chicago by Michael J Darling and had also been held in Doha. Last month, Abloh and Nike opened an experimental pop-up experience in Chicago a few blocks from the museum. While attending college he learned of the sixteenth-century Italian painter, whose unique use of contrasting light and shadow convinced Abloh that a single person can change the course of art through innovation. It sort of woke me up as a potential importance of organizing my work in a new museological way so that both the tourist and purist can understand my practice,” Abloh says, “but also so a younger generation can see how vital the museum is and to think and experience outside of just their phone.

This exhibition demonstrates myself wrestling with this concept within the freedom of mediums while finding personal solutions. Private collectionAbloh’s studio Alaska Alaska created these chairs as part of an experiment in designing furniture for the home.