From now until 23 June, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art honours photographer Larry Sultan with a show titled ‘Here and Home’. Until his passing in 2009, Sultan chronicled and re-imagined California through a medium of his own, combining visual and textual artefacts with photographs described as ‘staged documentary’.
This compact yet broad-reaching retrospective brings back Evidence, the pioneering book project from 1977 that explored ambiguity and appropriation by taking archival government and corporate images out of context. ‘This is the closest that Evidence has come to a correct installation, mimicking how they were laid out in the book,’ says Mike Mandel, co-collaborator of the original project.
The exhibition also includes Pictures from Home (1983–92), which treats his parents’ suburban home like a private anthropological study by recreating narratives through intimate portraits, interior photography, and personal belongings – including a letter to Sultan’s father from his employer. The Valley (1997-2003), which began as commissioned work for a men’s magazine, documents the porn industry of his home San Fernando Valley with behind-the-scene shots of film sets juxtaposed with deceptively monotonous details of a cookie-cutter home.
In addition to more than 200 photographs and an actual billboard, the display includes Study Hall, which takes a peek at his creative process through books, ephemera and touch screens displaying discarded images.
If you can’t get enough of Sultan’s work, catch a related exhibition happening at Minnesota Street Project in Dogpatch. Elsewhere, Casemore Kirkeby gallery presents his editorial and commercial projects, including a 2003 assignment for Walllpaper* in which he staged and photographed modern furniture on tacky adult film sets. Fake Newsroom, also available online, is a timely tribute to Sultan and Mandel’s early collaboration Newsroom (1983), in which the duo altered the meaning of real-time wire press photographs by presenting them in new sequences.
Woman in Curlers, from the series The Valley, 2002.
Practicing Golf Swing, from the series Pictures from Home, 1986.
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.
Batting Cage, from the series Homeland, 2007. Promised gift of Michal Venera to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Backyard Hercules, from the series Homeland, 2009. Promised gift of Nion McEvoy to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
My Mother Posing for Me, from the series Pictures From Home, 1984.
Business Page, from the series Pictures From Home, 1985.
Discussion, Kitchen Table, from the series Pictures From Home, 1985.
Dad with Golf Clubs, from the series Pictures From Home, 1987.
Untitled, by Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel, from the series Evidence, 1977.
Untitled, by Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel, from the series Evidence, 1977.
Oranges on Fire, by Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel, 1975.
Sharon Wild, from the series The Valley, 2001.
Sunset, from the series Pictures from Home, 1989.
INFORMATION
‘Here and Home’ is on view until 23 July. For more information, visit the SFMOMA website
ADDRESS
151 3rd Street
San Francisco CA 94103
-
Meet the landscape studio reviving the eco-brutalist Barbican ConservatoryLondon-based Harris Bugg Studio is working on refreshing the Barbican Conservatory as part of the brutalist icon's ongoing renewal; we meet the landscape designers to find out more
-
‘A Single Man’ is now a ballet – we go behind the designAs ‘A Single Man’ is presented by The Royal Ballet and Factory International in London, here’s how its set designer brought protagonist George’s inner and outer worlds to life on stage
-
Pat McGrath sets a new standard for luxury in beauty with La Beauté Louis VuittonThe fashion house has launched its long-awaited debut beauty line, spearheaded by legendary make-up artist Pat McGrath
-
Richard Prince recontextualises archival advertisements in TexasThe artist unites his ‘Posters’ – based on ads for everything from cat pictures to nudes – at Hetzler, Marfa
-
The best Ruth Asawa exhibition is actually on the streets of San FranciscoThe artist, now the subject of a major retrospective at SFMOMA, designed many public sculptures scattered across the Bay Area – you just have to know where to look
-
Orlando Museum of Art wants to showcase more Latin American and Hispanic artists. Do you fit the bill?The Florida gallery calls for for Hispanic and Latin American artists to submit their work for an ongoing exhibition
-
The spread of Butter: the Black-owned art fair where artists see all the profitsThe Indianapolis-based art fair is known for bringing Black art to the forefront. As it ventures out of state to make its Los Angeles debut, we speak with founders Mali and Alan Bacon to find out more
-
Steve Martin wants you to visit The Frick CollectionThe actor has appeared in a video promoting New York’s newly renovated art museum
-
Architect Erin Besler is reframing the American tradition of barn raisingAt Art Omi sculpture and architecture park, NY, Besler turns barn raising into an inclusive project that challenges conventional notions of architecture
-
The dynamic young gallerists reinvigorating America's art scene'Hugging has replaced air kissing' in this new wave of galleries with craft and community at their core
-
Meet the New York-based artists destabilising the boundaries of societyA new show in London presents seven young New York-based artists who are pushing against the borders between refined aesthetics and primal materiality
