Lady Gaga and her fiance Taylor Kinney have posed naked on the cover of V magazine after having sex on a paint canvas.

The pair are completely nude and covered in paint as Gaga hugs her fiance from behind, in a selfie taken by Taylor.

The new issue of the magazine will feature 16 different covers and proceeds from the $US50 ($A71.68) magazine will benefit Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation.

Gaga, who served as guest editor, explains she came up with the concept for the feature after asking Taylor to work with her on a project to raise awareness for mental illness.

“Since we first met, Taylor’s been drawing and painting all over me,” she writes in her guest editor’s letter for the magazine. “Years ago, when we were secretly living in San Diego and crashing on the floor of a beach shack, we never wore shoes. He told me he wanted to make love to me on a canvas.” “I asked (Taylor) to collaborate with me on a project to raise money and awareness about mental illness, (and) he immediately brought my attention back to this idea,” she continues.

“We made love on the canvas on a Sunday in Chicago,” she adds. “We made love amidst chaos. We talked about shootings. We made love amidst terrorism. And we talked about how people’s hearts are also suffering all over the world as they watch and witness a swell of violence. We made love amidst violence.”