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Exhibition

Larry Sultan

Here and Home
April 15–July 23, 2017
Floor 3

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.)

Exhibition Preview

Artwork image, Larry Sultan, My Mother Posing for Me
A photograph of a man practicing his golf swing
Artwork image, Larry Sultan, Sunset
Artwork image, Larry Sultan, Woman in Curlers
Artwork image, Larry Sultan, Boxers, Mission Hills
Artwork image, LarrySultan, Canal District San Rafael
Artwork image, Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel, Untitled, from the series Evidence
Artwork image, Larry Sultan, Evidence (noose)

Larry Sultan, My Mother Posing for Me, from the series Pictures From Home, 1984; © the Estate of Larry Sultan; photo: courtesy Casemore Kirkeby and Estate of Larry Sultan

Larry Sultan, Practicing Golf Swing, from the series Pictures from Home, 1986; © Estate of Larry Sultan; photo: courtesy Casemore Kirkeby and Estate of Larry Sultan

Larry Sultan, Sunset, from the series Pictures from Home, 1989; © Estate of Larry Sultan; photo: courtesy Casemore Kirkeby and Estate of Larry Sultan

Larry Sultan, Woman in Curlers, from the series The Valley, 2002; © Estate of Larry Sultan; photo: courtesy Casemore Kirkeby and Estate of Larry Sultan

Larry Sultan, Boxers, Mission Hills, from the series The Valley, 1999; © Estate of Larry Sultan; photo: courtesy Casemore Kirkeby and Estate of Larry Sultan

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

Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel, Untitled, from the series Evidence, 1977; © Estate of Larry Sultan and © Mike Mandel; photo: courtesy Estate of Larry Sultan/Casemore Kirkeby and Mike Mandel/Robert Mann Gallery

Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel, Untitled, from the series Evidence, 1977; © Estate of Larry Sultan and © Mike Mandel; photo: courtesy Estate of Larry Sultan/Casemore Kirkeby and Mike Mandel/Robert Mann Gallery


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Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel first met as MFA students at the San Francisco Art Institute. Over the next thirty years, their artistic partnership produced an impressive body of work as well as a lifelong friendship. Explore their respective careers and collaborative conceptual projects, which are alternately ironic, subversive, wry, surrealistic, and poignant.
Artwork image, LarrySultan, Canal District San Rafael See All

This exhibition is organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Major support for this exhibition at SFMOMA is provided by Bottega Veneta.

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