I love paintings when it feels like you're intruding," says Anok Yai.
We are standing in front of Kerry James Marshall's Untitled (Studio), which hangs in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The painting is a glimpse into an artist's workspace, with a model seated, her head in the hands of an artist's assistant who is staring at the viewer.
It is as if you've disturbed something-or maybe the viewer is the artist, about to tackle the half-completed canvas that sits to the left of the frame.
"I fucking love this," Yai says and immediately sits on a bench in front of the painting. It makes sense she'd be drawn to it. In addition to being that rare cultural phenomenon-a bona fide supermodelYai is also an artist. She taught herself oil painting a few years ago.
"I started off painting a portrait of myself," she explains. "Every month, I would add a detail." She describes the work as "a time capsule in a painting of myself."
Yai chose an extraordinary period to document herself across.
Over the past six years, she has climbed to the top of the modeling industry. She is the second Black model, after Naomi Campbell in 1997, to open a Prada show. That assignment is a coronation for a model, and Yai has accepted the crown. Since then, she has walked for Louis Vuitton and Mugler, and she's also been featured in short films for Chanel and Saint Laurent and campaigns for Estée Lauder. This spring, she became the face of Mugler's fragrance Alien Hypersense. "They gave me a lot of artistic agency on the shoot," she says. "I think the stunts were supposed to be CGI, but I asked, 'Can I do it for real?"" And so there she is in the ad, scaling a wall with ease.
That kind of success could easily be overwhelming. Yai says her love of art, though, is "part of what has kept me whole..... I didn't feel like I was really losing myself as I got into the fashion industry."
Denne historien er fra May 2024-utgaven av Harper's BAZAAR - US.
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Denne historien er fra May 2024-utgaven av Harper's BAZAAR - US.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
The STATES of REPRODUCTIVE Rights
The STORIES from a POST-RUE AMERICA are HARROWING and HARD TO BELIEVE. That's why we MUST LISTEN..
The Whole TORY
TWO DECADES in, TORY BURCH, the BRAND, is once again one of the most TALKED-ABOUT labels in FASHION because TORY BURCH, the WOMAN, did what she's ALWAYS DONE in times of uncertainty: BET on HERSELF.
The VANGUARDS
WHO DO YOU look up to when you're the one name-checked as the first, the best, the source of inspiration? That's the question everyone at the vanguard of things contemplates at one time or another.
Like NO OTHER
She BROKE BARRIERS and REWROTE the RULES. Fell DOWN, got back UP, and did it all in NINE-INCH HEELS. This is NAOMI CAMPBELL.
WHEN in ROME
REDISCOVER the ETERNAL CITY through a slew of NEW properties that OOZE SPREZZATURA
ICONS Only
What makes an OUTFIT live on in HISTORY? Which outfits CHANGED the way we THINK about GETTING DRESSED? Bazaar assembled a team of EXPERTS to determine the 25 MOST ICONIC LOOKS of all time.
The LEGACY of LIZ TILBERIS
In honor of OVARIAN CANCER Awareness Month, CHRIS TILBERIS recalls the work of his late mother, who ushered in a new GOLDEN AGE for Harper's Bazaar in the '90s while waging her own BATTLE with the disease.
NATASHA LYONNE, CARRIE COON, and ELIZABETH OLSEN on challenging AUDIENCES-and EXPECTATIONS-in Hollywood
There are actors, and then there actors-the type of performers who bring a life and vitality to each and every role, no matter how small or large, and routinely take on gutsy projects that inspire extraordinary devotion and passionate defenses.
THE PEOPLE and IDEAS SHAPING the CULTURE - CLOSE Encounters
In the first edition of his new column, THE DISPATCH, DEREK BLASBERG talks to GLENN CLOSE about LONGEVITY, OSCARS, and her most ICONIC roles—and why it's always important to DRESS the PART
What Are You Wearing?- Activist Amanda Nguyen on turning that question into a rallying cry for survivors of sexual assault everywhere
Activist Amanda Nguyen on turning that question into a rallying cry for survivors of sexual assault everywhere. Walking down the runway in a custom dress designed by artists Suzanne McClelland and Alix Pearlstein and adorned with the text of the Survivors' Bill of Rights, I was overwhelmed with a mix of emotions. Alongside me were other survivors and allies, while ambassadors from the United Nations, diplomats, policymakers, and influencers all came to watch.
