An image display apparatus includes a light source; a light modulation element modulating illumination light coming from the light source on the basis of image data; an illumination area modification unit capable of reducing an illumination area for the light modulation element in order to illuminate a specific image-forming area in the image-forming area of the light modulation element; and an image display-processing unit having an illumination area control unit for controlling the illumination area modification unit and a resolution conversion unit for converting a resolution of the image data into a resolution corresponding to the specific image-forming area.