Robert Polidori, Versailles, Salles d'Afrique, Portrait of Louis XVI by Callet #2, 2007If you cannot make it to Versailles with me tomorrow, might I suggest a trip to see the retrospective of Robert Polidori's work which opens today at the Musee d'Art Contemporain de Montreal.
Polidori, who was born in Montreal, is known for his exquisite photographs of places of historical importance. He has photographed such locations as Versailles, Havana, Chernobyl and New Orleans (after the flood). In photographs that seem larger than life and filled with breath-taking detail, Polidori evokes memory and the haunting beauty of decay.
The exposition at the Musee d'Art Contemporain de Montreal is on from May 22 to September 7, 2009 and includes sixty works from the artist's principal series.
I had the pleasure of seeing Polidori's magnificent photographs of Versailles at the Nicolas Metivier Gallery in November 2008 (and wrote about it in a post on November 13, 2009). The exquisite beauty of the images has stayed with me.
I have pre-ordered Polidori's book called "Transitional States" which will be released on June 30, 2009. In this book, Polidori's charts 25 years of the conservation project at Versailles.