Cammy Yiu

American portraitist and fashion photographer Richard Avedon is featured in Immortal: Portraits of Aging, 1951-2004 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Richard Avedon (1923-2004) was born, lived and worked in New York City. His interest in photography began at an early age. During World War Two, Avedon enlisted in the armed forces and served as a photographer in the U.S. Merchant Marine. At the age of twenty-two, Avedon began working as a freelance photographer, primarily for Harper’s Bazaar.

Marie Antoinette is as famous for her grandiose lifestyle as she is infamous for her role as a central figure in the turbulent fall of France’s monarchy during the French Revolution. From her birth in 1755 to her execution in 1793, Marie Antoinette’s brief life was driven by politics and circumstances seemingly beyond her control. She was born in Vienna and named Maria Antonia, the youngest daughter and the fifteenth child of Empress Maria Theresa.

During the Paris Olympics, French contemporary artist Laurent Perbos presented his installation work, Beauty and Gesture, on the steps of the National Assembly. The installation married classical sculpture with feminine and Olympian sentiments. Six brightly coloured sculptures modelled on the Venus de Milo depicted various sports with their accompanying equipment, including boxing gloves, basketballs, surfboards, bows and arrows, tennis rackets, and javelins.