Nicki Minaj on W

 

Nicki Minaj looks refreshing on the cover of the up and coming W issue.  Maybe they're running out of fashionable-edgy-hip-hop-LadyGaga-esque ideas.  I know people will say she's been lightened, but I don't think the viewer is intended to perceive her as a white woman.

Francesco Vezzoli's historic portrayal is also an anachronistic hodgepodge.  The exposure has been raised(you can see the shadows and background are the hue of a dusty brown instead of the original black) mimicking a daguerreotype portrait, while Miss Minaj is dressed(Empire Waist) and posed as if in a Neoclassical portrait.  She is also equipped with granny hair? A modern interpretation of Rococo French aristocracy?

I've noticed this is the Art & Fashion Issue... we have a Bourgeois depiction of Art+Fashion?  How positively VOGUE of them.  Couldn't they choose something other than these tired references?  I'd like to see Lichtenstein pop art or Kirchner maybe.  Here's a great example from Vogue Italia shot by Michael Thompson in 2006 that references Henri Matisse.  An amazing example of ART+ FASHION.

The Last image is specifically referencing Matisse's Purple Robe and Anemones, 1937(seen above).
Gimme thoughts.  I also just realized that  weird blue thing on her chest might be a Frida Kahlo reference....