In a media cycle already saturated with journalist Olivia Nuzzi’s increasingly personal controversies, Vanity Fair’s decision to publish a stunning abstract nude portrait of its newest West Coast editor may be the most interesting development yet.
The painting, titled How to Disappear is by the artist Isabelle Brourman and is set to appear in the magazine’s Dec. 2 Hollywood Issue, according to industry newsletter Status, though until now, no image has circulated publicly or even widely inside Condé Nast. Sources tell ARTnews that the portrait that the image is a magazine exclusive and was not intended to run online.
Brourman has become known for her courtroom sketches of celebrity defendants, particularly during the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial. More recently Brourman spent months elegantly documenting the drama inside New York City’s federal immigration court and was the subject of a profile in Vanity Fair in October.
How to Disappear was commissioned months before Vanity Fair made the decision to feature the work in the December issue alongside an excerpt from Nuzzi’s new book “American Canto” which will also be available on Dec 2. The book’s impending release has led to a fresh wave of scrutiny and media attention—an onslaught that began with the fallout from her “sexting” relationship with Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which led to her departure from New York magazine in 2024.
The portrait, however, is a more elegant depiction of Nuzzi and the whirlwind that surrounds her. A blonde woman, nude, with eyes closed, stands at the center, while Americana-drenched symbols swirl around her, through her, and reflect off her bare skin. It will be on view next month during Art Basel Miami Beach, as part of Jeffery Deitch’s presentation “The Great American Nude.”
“I am excited to exhibit Isabelle Brourman’s portrait of Olivia Nuzzi in The Great American Nude, our project for Art Basel Miami Beach,” Deitch told ARTnews via text message. “The curation is inspired by an iconic Tom Wesselmann painting, The Great American Nude VIII which is the featured work in our presentation. I admire how Isabelle has transformed and expanded the courtroom sketch into a new realm of portraiture. It is uncanny how her portrait of Olivia echos the Wesselmann. She has portrayed Olivia as today’s Great American Nude.”
The turbulence surged again this month when her former fiancé, journalist Ryan Lizza, published two lengthy Substack installments detailing their breakup and alleging parallel affairs, including one with former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford. His disclosures revived earlier questions about Nuzzi’s entanglements with political subjects and reignited debate around conflicts of interest.
According to the media criticism newsletter Status, the portrait arrives at a moment of internal frustration at Vanity Fair. Staffers told Status‘s media correspondent Natalie Korach, who until September of this year worked at Vanity Fair, that Nuzzi has allegedly skipped routine meetings, missed assignments, and produced little editorial work as the scandals have intensified. New editorial director Mark Guiducci has reportedly addressed the newsroom repeatedly, fielding concerns while acknowledging that the allegation happened five year ago while Nuzzi worked at New York Magazine.
As Condé Nast weighs its next steps, the yet-unseen portrait has already become another part of the story—a portrait commissioned in calmer waters, now surfacing in the middle of a storm. Conde Nast did not answer a request for comment on the work before publication.
