A reliable image display apparatus is provided that is capable of preventing a direct current from being applied to liquid crystal of a spatial light modulating element so that damage such as burns in the liquid crystal and screen flicker may be prevented and a high resolution image with high image quality may be displayed. The image display apparatus is configured to divide a frame into 2i sub frames (i corresponding to a natural number) and sequentially display the sub frames using the liquid crystal spatial light modulating element. The image display apparatus includes a polarity switching unit configured to reverse the polarity of a drive voltage for a pixel of the spatial light modulating element for every j sub frame(s) (j corresponding to a natural number that is less than 2i) and for every n frame(s)(n corresponding to a natural number).