Earlier this year, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA) debuted the first career-spanning exhibition devoted to Virgil Abloh. As a part of the exhibition, the MCA released a variety of items through the companion pop-up shop “Church and State,” ranging from totes to tees and even several books.
While all of the merchandise racked up sales on StockX, the tees, of which more than 25 released, are particularly interesting. In traditional Virgil Abloh fashion, each tee draws reference from very classical and niche inspirations such as Caravaggio, a Dutch architecture firm, and even some of Abloh’s old Tumblr posts. We’ve pulled the references for each and every tee dropped during Virgil Abloh: “Figures Of Speech” exhibition and broke them down below, so scroll down to read more.
Remember Tumblr?
Left: Screenshot of Virgil Abloh’s 2012 Tumblr Post; Center, Right: Virgil x MCA Pyrex Tee.
Yes, Tumblr.
The microblogging site recently made headlines after reporting revealed that Verizon was selling the site to WordPress for a loss of nearly a billion dollars. Beyond that news, however, the site was quickly forgotten. Abloh’s MCA exhibition sent us scouring the now-wasteland for some connection to the seemingly random tees released by the artist and designer. Our efforts proved to be worthwhile as we found that two different tees reference posts Abloh made years ago on Tumblr. Both the White Pyrex Tee and the White Pyrex Team Tee feature imagery initially posted on the site. The Pyrex Tee is likely a literal screenshot of the browser version of Tumblr while the Pyrex Team Tee features the image itself.
Both tees can be shopped here.
Caravaggio
Left: Caravaggio’s “The Entombment Of Christ” (1603); Center: Virgil Abloh x MCA Pyrex Caravaggio Tee; Right: Virgil Abloh x MCA Staff Tee.
A revolutionary artist, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, is the father of the Baroque style of painting, characterized by high drama, rich, deep color, and intense light along with dark shadows. Abloh has often mentioned the artist as a significant inspiration (check out this Tumblr post from 2012). For the “Figures Of Speech” exhibition, he released three tees featuring artwork by the 16th Century artist. Two of the three tees feature Caravaggio’s “The Entombment Of Christ,” one of his more iconic works. On the Pyrex Caravaggio Tee, the painting is reduced to black and white and printed above an AMO logo. The second tee featuring “The Entombment Of Christ” is the Staff Tee, which features the artwork in a shade of blue slightly darker than the shirt below the word “Staff.” The third tee is the Off-White Caravaggio Tee, one of several pieces dropped at the museum gift shop under Virgil’s brand Off-White. The Off-White “Caravaggio Tee” features the painting “Madonna of the Rosary,” in black and white with two orange strips along the side that make the image appear to be taped on to the shirt.
All three tees can be shopped on StockX here.
Simon Brown
One of the more substantial collaborative efforts of “Figures Of Speech” merchandise are several collaborative pieces with graphic artist Simon Brown. Brown leads &&&, a graphic design agency based out of London, and has previously worked with another of Virgil’s significant inspirations, architect Rem Koolhaas. Brown did the graphic for Koolhaas’s book “Content,” and Virgil took notice, seeking him out to bring him on as a collaborator for the exhibition. According to Complex, Brown served as a consultant in the design of the “Figures of Speech” exhibition book. Brown was also tapped for some “Figures Of Speech” exclusive collaborative merchandise culminating in the release of five tees and two hoodies under Virgil’s Off-White line. Each piece features the words “Figures Of Speech” on the front with Brown’s twist on some of Abloh’s most iconic design cues. Brown’s twists include an illustrated “KEEP OFF” rug with eyes and feet, and the iconic Off-White tags with feet. Brown told Complex that turning logos and design cues into characters is a staple of production for their &&&. Virgil Abloh x Simon Brown for the MCA can be shopped on StockX here.
AMO
Tees featuring the logo of Rem Koolhaas’s Office for Metropolitan (OMA) think-tank, AMO.
The “Figures Of Speech” exhibition is, of course, a celebration of Abloh’s career and work up to this point. But as much as Abloh’s work is celebrated, his work is also celebrating his inspirations. The exhibit features a large-scale version of Kanye West’s album, “Yeezus,” and a few feet away you can step into a room and hear audio of John Berger’s 1972 documentary, “Ways Of Seeing.” Among the references and nods to his inspirations come several tees that reveal the collaborative nature of the entire exhibition. According to Designboom, the “Figures Of Speech” exhibition was designed by AMO, the research division of Rem Koolhaas’s architecture firm, OMA. Here, once again, we see Abloh nodding to the solo work done by his heroes and his collaborative work with them. Several tees feature the AMO typeface including both versions of the Pyrex Team Tees, the Pyrex Caravaggio Tee, the Million Things Tee, Grass Graveyard Tee, and one tee, the AMO Tee, is specifically dedicated to the brand. The AMO Tee features black text on a bright green tee that shows the word “Virgil” becoming the word “AMO” on the front with a map of the exhibit on the back.
Artist Collaborations
Right and Center: Virgil Abloh’s Collaborative Tee with Tom Sachs; Left: Virgil Abloh’s Collaborative Tee with Futura.
“Figures Of Speech” also led to the release of two other collaborations with two artists who have items trading on StockX. Midway through June, a Tom Sachs collaborative tee was released, and then in August a collaborative tee with graffiti artist Futura was also released. The Tom Sachs Tee features a handwritten “Off-White” on the front and a hand-drawn Off-White logo on the back. The Futura Tee features an Off-White blank that’s been decorated with imagery from Futura’s long-standing clothing line, Futura Laboratories. Shop both tees below.
Cali Dewitt
Left, An image from Cali Thornhill Dewitt’s recent exhibition, “War Song”; Right: Virgil’s MCA Tee Featuring artwork from Dewitt’s Exhibition.
Another artist referenced by “Figures Of Speech” merch is Cali Thornhill Dewitt, an LA-based creative whose work has recently focused on the climate crisis. Dewitt’s most recent exhibition, “War Song,” has been shown in Copenhagen. Dewitt has said that the exhibition was “something of an exploration of my negative outlook on the worst qualities of the human race, the selfish destruction of the planet without fear of consequence.” The Cali Dewitt Globe Tee was dropped via the “Church and State” store in two colors, black and white, and features imagery of one of Dewitt’s pieces.
Shop the tees on StockX here.
Other References
While some of the references were specifically obscure, others were obvious, whether by returning to designs released widely by Abloh or simple museum merchandise. The white “Figures Of Speech” Tee was the first piece of exhibition merchandise to release. The tee features a fighter jet flying over the words “Figures Of Speech” on the front and a painter painting over the same phrase on the back. The Lines Tee and Tape Tee were released separately but resembled each other. The Black Tape Tee includes the dotted tape across the front and back and White Lines Tee features dotted lines across the front but shares the same back as several other tees, including the Team Tee.
There were also two FOS Tees released in a white and green colorway. The white version of this tee features a smaller “FOS” graphic on the right chest area and a map of the exhibition on the back while the green colorway features a full-sized graphic across the whole of the chest and the same map of the exhibition on the back. Two other tees were released that share design cues but also did not contain artistic references. The Grass Graveyard Tee and The Million Things Tee both released in black and leaned on different grammatical terminology for their designs, the “Grass Graveyard” tee defining “alliteration,” and the Million Things Tee defining “hyperbole.” The “Grass Graveyard” tee features the alliterative phrase “Grass Grows Greener In The Graveyard,” and the “Million Things” tee include the hyperbolic saying, “I have a million things to do today.”
Shout out to Mr. Abloh for giving his customers some English lessons they can use.
Shop every tee released as a part of the MCA’s Virgil Abloh: “Figures Of Speech” exhibition on StockX here. And be sure to read our interview with Michael Darling, the James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator of the MCA, and the “Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech” exhibition curator.
