Mary Boone Gallery, in cooperation with Edwynn Houk Gallery, will open at its Chelsea location Versailles, photographs from the acclaimed series by ROBERT POLIDORI depicting the Château de Versailles.

Robert Polidori is one of the world’s foremost photographers of human environments. From Havana, to Chernobyl, to New Orleans, his large format images, through exquisite composition, detail, and color, capture the essence of a place. He began his now over twenty-five year fascination with Versailles after winning in the mid-1980s an exclusive contract to document the restoration of the Seventeenth Century palace.

The photographs in the exhibition were taken between 1985 and 2010. They captivate in their depiction of stately rooms made unassuming by disarray, sumptuous finishes worn and faded, and evidence of tender practical concerns and solutions in the face of grandiosity. Even though the people who maintain and occupy these interiors are never seen, their presence is acutely felt. But the photographs are not merely records of the present: Polidori evokes the aspirations and endeavors by both monarchs and laborers over past centuries. Time becomes unfixed and history feels relevant to today.

*image (left)
courtesy of the artist and Mary Boone Gallery