"Virgil was a genius whose entire body was an antenna and who would absorb and turn everything around him in his life into his flesh and blood." —Takashi Murakami on his late friend and collaborator, Virgil Abloh
When we started crafting the Fall 2022 quarterly, knowing we wanted to showcase Virgil Abloh’s posthumous exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, there was always going to be a conversation about his legacy. Most importantly, we wanted to examine what it really means to live an artistic life. Because Virgil defined it. Whether you embrace his prolific output or not, there is no denying that through fashion, music, architecture, design, fine art and collaboration, Virgil Abloh maximized his 41 years on this earth by exploring the range and possibilities of creative projects. He explored them through the simple, joyous impulse to make and share ideas, and in that practice, it made him one of those rare, inspiring people who touch us or change our perception of the surrounding world, who define a period of time in their very omnipresence. As criticism didn’t faze him, he created through an authentic curiosity that allowed for both successes and failures to be appreciated as part of the process. Also, as our culture has been defined by our need to share, Virgil held the mirror back up to us and shared his life in an honest, open way. When he passed away last year, we lost a direct antenna to the 21st-century experience, but his foundational ethos remains a beacon in these uncertain and tumultuous times.
Virgil also exemplified another trait: He worked with so many, and those many collaborators have gone on to bring such an ethic to others. That is inevitably how we define him. Teamwork. Sharing. Collaboration. Possibility. As we survey the art world and note the defining singular names, what is often overlooked is the concept of synergy and working in concert. Murakami, Holzer, Wiley, these exemplary names who define an aesthetic, have all forged a team that makes their vision grander, more articulated, and more expansive. Artists may spend their days in the studio, laboring alone and processing internal monologues, but often these days are spurred by collaborative conversations about craft with others, sharing tools of the trade, and exploring concepts. It can be solitary, yet legendary voices like Virgil’s remind us that the art world can be greater than the sum of its parts, and that needing and relying on others can bring a creative endeavor to life. Art history may canonize the lone wolf mentality, and we may only champion the successes of the studio, but Virgil broke the mold by giving us a look behind the creative curtain of experimentation and constant collaborative discussions.
Maybe that’s where Juxtapoz can stake a claim over these 28 years because, in so many ways, we are a collaborative effort, presenting the art world as a conversation among generations of artists, starting with our founder, Robert Williams setting the stage—whose new book, Ink, Blood and Linseed Oil, will be out in late September. The artists in the Fall 2022 quarterly, from Kehinde Wiley to Broken Fingaz, each explain themselves as part of a larger whole in the spirit of association. “The whole point of collaboration is that you give and take from each other, and that's how you create things that are totally new,” Virgil Abloh once said, and so, we often speak about art in those terms. That is at the heart of this publication and the artists we document in each issue. Although we lost one of the greatest champions of collaboration, we continually work to honor that legacy with our antennas up. —Evan Pricco
Buy the Fall 2022 Quarterly here.
