What does Virgil Abloh's collab with the Louvre mean? How black community is taking back its space in the art world

«I was fascinated with Da Vinci early on – I was in my senior year at Wisconsin, taking an art class. I was super interested not only by his artworks but also by the influence he had in many disciplines besides art: science, engineering, architecture».

These are the words of Virgil Abloh, who graduated in architecture, spoken at the launch of the collection created by Off-White for the Louvre Museum for the 500 years since the death of the Italian genius. whose influence on Abloh and his designs is neither recent nor even less surprising, given the multipurpose way in which the designer has always approached art and fashion. 

Tyler Mitchell, the first black photographer and the youngest ever to shoot a cover of Vogue - in the September 2018 issue of Beyoncé on the cover - entered the Smithsonian's collection last August with a portrait of Bey. Of course, the appointment of Virgil Abloh, an African-American from Rockford, Illinois, as creative director of Louis Vuitton is the culmination of this process, as is the fact that a streetwear brand - by the same African-American artistic director - enters at the Louvre from the front door. «I want to crash together these two worlds that are seemingly different: fashion and high art. It’s a crucial part of my overall body of work to prove that any place, no matter how exclusive it seems, is accessible to everyone. », Abloh said at the announcement of the new collection, once again reiterating the intention to change the old rules of distribution and possession of art, as well as the definition of what can be understood today as art or luxury.