This major retrospective examines the work and career of Larry Sultan (American, 1946–2009), an internationally renowned photographer with deep ties to the Bay Area as both an artist and an educator. Sultan’s often intensely personal images — many drawn from his own family’s history — blend documentary and staged elements in their explorations of storytelling, family, and domesticity.
Larry Sultan: Here and Home explores the artist’s 35-year career through more than 200 photographs, a billboard created with conceptual artist and frequent collaborator Mike Mandel, a film, and Study Hall — a room offering a unique glimpse into Sultan’s exploratory process. Works on view include Sultan’s early collaborative projects of the 1970s, made with Mandel, as well as his later work including Pictures from Home (1983–92), The Valley (1997–2003), and Homeland (2006–09). (An exhibition of Mandel’s work, Mike Mandel: Good 70s, is on view on Floor 3, May 20–August 20, 2017.)
This exhibition is organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Major support for this exhibition at SFMOMA is provided by Bottega Veneta.
Generous support is provided by Nancy and Joachim Bechtle, Nion McEvoy, Wes and Kate Mitchell, and Chara Schreyer and Gordon Freund.
Header image: Larry Sultan, Canal District, San Rafael, from the series Homeland, 2006; promised gift of Robert Mailer Anderson and Nicola Miner to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Estate of Larry Sultan; photo: courtesy Casemore Kirkeby and Estate of Larry Sultan