[Fall 2026]

Richard Avedon, Immortal. Portraits of Aging, 1951–2004
By Marie-Lise Poirier

Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal
12.02.2026 — 09.08.2026

[EXCERPT]

Although a portrait is presumed, above all, to show a specular relationship between models and their image, it has always been subjected to aesthetic and ideological criteria that require idealization of the subject. Photographers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries sought to soften the ravages of time engraved on the flesh with careful posing, subtle lighting, and skilful mechanical – then digital – manipulation. This approach, still considered legitimate as long as a balance is maintained between faithful representation and embellishment of ageing bodies, is ingrained in a gerontophobic visual culture with which New York fashion photographer and portraitist Richard Avedon (1923–2004) always refused to conform. He took thousands of pictures celebrating old age in portraits of unknown people, celebrities, and his close circle – a body of work that lent itself to being the subject for an exhibition.

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[ Complete issue, in print and digital version, available here: Ciel variable 133 – INTIMACIES ]
[ Complete article in digital version available here : Richard Avedon,Immortal. Portraits of Aging, 1951–2004 ]

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Marie-Lise Poirier is a doctoral student in art history at the Université du Québec à Montréal. She researches printmaking and the culture of printed materials in France in the nineteenth century. In her thesis, using a self-reflexive and epistemological approach, she examines the form of the artist biography and updates knowledge on Guillaume Sulpice Chevallier, known as Gavarni (1804–1866).