LOCKDOWN TALES: Hairstylist Mustafa Yanaz adapts Renaissance paintings to create modern day quarantine portraits
Hair: Mustafa Yanaz @ Art + Commerce
Words: Emma de Clercq
In the absence of anyone to model his elaborately crafted hairstyles, Mustafa Yanaz has turned to the Old Masters for help. From quarantine in New York, the hairstylist is “digging out models of history”, playfully adapting Renaissance paintings to give them a contemporary makeover. Using components from 15th and 16th century Italian masterpieces as his starting point, Yanaz gives the figures his own punk-inspired hairstyles, which he creates at home before merging them with the original artworks. Removed from their original contexts, Yanaz’s digital collages transport the sitters – complete with face masks – firmly into the here and now.
“Using Renaissance portraits that influenced me, I took pictures of my Dollheads mimicking the same pose of the original portrait, before photoshopping both components into the right fit and form.”