Larry Sultan

Biography

Larry Sultan’s work blends documentary and staged photography creating images that playfully negotiate between reality and fantasy, domesticity and desire. Sultan’s renowned use of light and color add to an evident tenderness and generosity in his explorations of home, family and the fate of the American Dream. An influential mentor to generations of artists and recipient of numerous awards and grants and the subject of a Broadway play, Sultan’s work continues to be exhibited and published internationally. His work is included in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art, the Met, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon Guggenheim Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Tate and the Centre Georges Pompidou, among many others. Born 1946 in Brooklyn, New York – died 2009 in Greenbrae, California.

Biography

Born 1946 in Brooklyn, New York, USA.

Died 2009 in Greenbrae, California, USA.

Education and Teaching

1989 – 2009

Professor of Art, California College of Arts and Crafts

1993 – 1999

Chair, Photography Department, California College of Arts and Crafts

1978 – 1988

Instructor of Photography, San Francisco Art Institute, California

1973

M.F.A., Photography, San Francisco Art Institute

1968

B.A., Political Science, University of California

Grants and Awards

2000

Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship (Residency in Italy)

United States State Department: International Arts and Lectures Grant

Flintridge Foundation Artist’s Fellowship

Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship

1999

Gerbode Foundation – Faculty Development Grant

1997

Society of Environmental Graphic Design – Award of Merit

1996

Haas Foundation – Creative Work Fund Award

Marin Arts Council, Artist Fellowship

1992

National Endowment for the Arts, Photography Fellowship

1991

Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Award

1989

Fleishhaker Foundation Eureka Fellowship

1988

Englehard Fellowship, ICA Boston

1986

National Endowment for the Arts, Photography Fellowship

Marin Arts Council, Artists Fellowship

1983

Guggenheim Fellowship

1980

National Endowment for the Arts, Photography Fellowship

1978

California Arts Council, Special Projects (with Mike Mandel)

1977

National Endowment for the Arts, Photography Fellowship

1976

National Endowment for the Arts, Art in Public Places (with Mike Mandel)

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2024

Larry Sultan: Pictures From Home, SK Stiftung, Cologne, Germany

2023

Larry Sultan: Pictures From Home, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, USA; Schloss Neuhardenberg bei Berlin, Berlin, Germany

2019

Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York

Casemore Kirkeby, San Francisco, California (with Mike Mandel)

2018

Larry Sultan. Swimmers, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany

2017

Larry Sultan. Here and Home, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California

2016

Larry Sultan. Here and Home, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

2015

Larry Sultan, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany

Larry Sultan, SMAK – Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium

2014 – 2015

Larry Sultan. Here and Home, Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, California

2010

Larry Sultan, Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover, Germany

2009

Larry Sultan. Homeland, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany

Larry Sultan. The Valley, Kunstverein Bremerhaven, Germany

2007

Larry Sultan. Around the House, Alexandre Pallazzon Ltd., London, UK

Larry Sultan. The Valley, Domus Artium 002, Salamanca, Spain

Larry Sultan. The Valley, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois

2006

BAT Campus Galerie, Bayreuth, Germany

Kunsthalle Bremerhaven, Bremerhaven, Germany

The Valley, Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia

2005

Maes & Matthys Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium

The Photographers’ Gallery, London, UK

Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland

2004

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California

2003

Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, California

2002

Reflex Modern Art, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2001

Janet Borden Gallery, New York

2000

Galerie MK, Rotterdam, Netherlands

1996

Queens Museum, New York

1995

Scottsdale Center for the Arts, Scottsdale, Arizona

Rhode Island School of Design, Photography Gallery, Rhode Island

1994

Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington, D.C:

1993

Chicago Cultural Arts Center, Chicago, Illinois

San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, SanDiego, California

Janet Borden Gallery, New York

1992

Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, California

San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California

1990

The Exploratorium, San Francisco, California

1989

Janet Borden Gallery, New York

1987

Rhode Island School of Design, Rhode Island

1983

University Art Museum, Berkeley, California

1982

Portland School of Art, Portland, Oregon

University of Colorado, Art Gallery, Colorado

1981

Light Gallery, Los Angeles, California

Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, Oregon

1979

Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois

Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

1978

Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California

1977

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California

Selected Group Exhibitions

2023 – 2024

Don’t Forget to Call Your Mother, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

2023

WHAT ARE WORDS WORTH?: The McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, USA

Blick in die Zeit – Alter und Altern im photographischen Porträt, Stiftung Schloss Neuhardenberg, Berlin, Germany

Intimate Strangers, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, USA

2022

Objects of Desire: Photography and the Language of Advertising, Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, USA

Hollywood, Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin, Germany

FOMU, Antwerp, Netherlands

2021

Essentials, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany

American Photography, Albertina, Vienna, Austria

Civilization: The Way We Live, Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée (MUCEM), Marseille, France

LUMA Foundation, Arles, France

2020 – 2021

Masculinities: Liberation through Photography, Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany

Parallel Worlds, Art, Science & Fiction, Kunstmuseum Celle, Celle, Germany

2020

Emotion and Structure, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany

2019

Fuzzy Dark Spot, Video Art from Hamburg, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany

Civilization: The Way We Live, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

In the Sunshine of Neglect, California Museum of Photography UCR Arts, Riverside, California

2018

Always Greener: Seeing and Seeking Suburbia—Selections from the Museum’s Collection, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas

No Time, McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, San Francisco, California

Civilization: The Way We Live, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea

A Tale of Two Worlds: Experimental Latin American Art in Dialogue with the MMK Collection 1940s-1980s, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt/Main, Germany and Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires, Argentina

The House Imaginary, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California

Constellations, Jewish Museum, New York

2017

Mike Mandel & Larry Sultan: Billboards & Newsroom, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, California

Materials and Objects: Larry Sultan & Mike Mandel, Tate Modern, London, UK

I remember not remembering, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottscale

2014

Berkeley Eye: Perspectives from the Collection, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley, California

1000 m2 of Desire, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

Public, Private, Secret, International Center of Photography, New York

Ordinary Pictures, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota

California and the West, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California

Festival Photo Levallois, Levallois, France

Post-Portrait, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California

(Mis)Understanding Photography. Werke und Manifeste, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany

2013

Fotografie Total. Werke aus der Sammlung Sammlung des MMK, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt/Main, Germany

PROXIMITIES: WHAT TIME IS IT THERE, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, California

2012

Under the Big Black Sun – Californian Art 1974-1981, MOCA at The Geffen Contemporary, Los Angeles, California

2011

WUNDER. Kunst, Wissenschaft und Religion vom 4. Jh. bis zur Gegenwart, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany

CUT, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany

Here, Pier 24, The Embarcadero, San Francisco, California

Hyper Real – Kunst und Amerika um 1970, Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany

The Lucid Evidence. Fotografie aus der Sammlung des MMK, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt/Main, Germany

2010

The View from Here, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco California

Le paradis, ou presque : Los Angeles (1865-2008), Musée Nicéphore Niépce, Chalon-sur-Saone, France

2009

Royal Botanical Gardens, PhotoEspaña 09, Madrid, Spain (with Mike Mandel)

Into the Sunset: Photography’s image of the American of West, Museum Modern Art, New York

Art Film / Art Basel, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland

The Art of Caring, New Orleans Museum of Art,

2008

Seeing Double, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany

Facebook: Images of People in Photographs from the Collection, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Poughkeepsie, New York

Seeing Ourselves: Masterpieces of American Photography, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, Mississippi

Darkside, FotoMuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland

Worlds Away. New Suburban Landscapes, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota

This Side of Paradise: Body and Landscape in L.A., Huntington Library, Los Angeles, California

Variable Capital, Bluecoat Art Centre, Liverpool, UK

Southern Exposure: Southern California Art from the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia

2007

Contemporary Art from the Permanent Collection, San Jose Museum, San Jose, California

Currents in Photography, Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento, California

Das Kapital. Blue Chips & Masterpieces, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt/Main, Germany

2006

So the Story Goes: Photographs by Tina Barney, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Nan Goldin, Sally Mann and Larry Sultan, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

4th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art: Of Mice and Men, Kunst-Werke Berlin e.V., Berlin, Germany

Click Double Click. Das dokumentarische Moment, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany

Click Double Click. Het documentaire moment, Palais des Beaux-Arts / Bozar, Brussels, Belgium

2003

Chic Clicks: Creativity and Commerce in Contemporary Fashion Photography, NRW Forum, Düsseldorf, Germany

2002

Visions from America: Photographs from the Whitney Museum of American Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Chic Clicks: Creativity and Commerce in Contemporary Fashion Photography, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland and Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts

House Broken, Rena Branstein Gallery, San Franscisco, California

2001

Settings and Players: Theatrical Ambiguity In American Photography, The White Cube, London, UK and the Prague City Gallery, Czech Republic

Picturing Media: Modern Photographs from the Collections, The Metropolitan Museum, New York

Points of Departure: Connecting mit Contemporary Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California

Color, Janet Borden Gallery, New York

2000

The Persistance of Photography in American Portraiture, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut

Immodest Gazes, La Fundacio La Caixa, Barcelona, Spain

The Path of Resistance. Protest Art in the 20th Century, Museum of Modern Art, New York

Made in California, Los Angeles Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles, California

Beyond Boundries: Contemporary Photography in California, Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, California

American Treasures from the Corcoran Gallery, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Making Light: Wit and Humor in Photography, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Poughkeepsie, New York

1999

Modern Starts / PEOPLE, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

The American Lawn: Surface of Everyday Life, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati and Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Into the 21st Century: Selections from the Permanent Collection, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California

Bay Area Now, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco 25/25 Southern Exposure, San Francisco, California

1998

Police Pictures: The Photograph as Evidence, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Grey Art Gallery, NYU, New York

Matrix: 20 Years, University Art Museum, Berkeley, California

The American Lawn: Surface of Everyday Life, Centre Canadien D’Architecture, Montreal, Canada

Under Exposed, Stockholm Metro Stations, Stockholm, Sweden

1997

HOPE, The National Arts Club, New York

Marin Arts Awards Exhibition, Falkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael, California

Friends and Family, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois

Scene of the Crime, Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California

1996

The Familial Gaze, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire

To Keep Her Countenance, Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, California

Illustrious History 1871 – Present, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, California

Photography as a Reflection of Time, Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.

1995

AlterEgo, Center for the Arts, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Photography, Stephan Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, California

Home is Where, Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, North Carolina

1994

Whose Looking at the Family, Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK

Gesture and Pose, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Nature and Culture, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California

1992

Dismantling The Myth of the Family, Betty Rymer Gallery, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Parents, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio

1991

The Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (travelling exhibition)

Prints, Drawings, Photographs: a Summer Selection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Photography as Idea: Conceptual Photography of the 60’s and 70’s, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California

Blood Relatives, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Imaging the Family: Photographs by Tina Barney, Lorie Novak, and Larry Sultan, MIT List Art Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts

1990

Recent Collaborations, Northlight Gallery, Tempe, Arizona

Re: Memory, The Work of Lorie Novak, George Kruse, Larry Sultan and Anne Turyn, Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama

1989

California Photography: Remaking Make-Believe, Museum of Modern Art, New York (travelling exhibition)

Real Life Fictions: Photographs of Bill Dane, John Harding and Larry Sultan, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California

Nature and Culture, The Friends of Photography, San Francisco, California

1988

Collaborations, Gallery at the Plaza, Security Pacific Corporation, Los Angeles, California

The Swimmers, Janet Burden Gallery, New York

1987

Photography and Art: Interactions Since 1946, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California

and Fort Lauderdale Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

1985

American Images 1945-1985, Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK

Playing it Again: Strategies of Appropriation, Center of Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico (travelling exhibition)

Family as Subject Matter in Contemporary Art, Washington

Project for the arts Art and Advertising, Center for Contemporary Art, Seattle, Washington

Les Immateriaux, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

Signs of the Times, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California

New Color Photography, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

The Swimmers, Pace McGill Gallery, New York

1984

Photography in California: 1945-1975, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California (travelling exhibition)

The Collection of Sam Wagstaff, International Center of Photography, New York

1982

20th Century Photography From the Museum of Modern Art, Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan

Beyond Color, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California

A Few French Gestures, Paris Bienale XIIeme, Paris, France

Selected Bibliography

2023

Swimmers, MACK books, London

2021

Pictures From Home, 2nd Edition, MACK Books, London

2018

The Photographer in the Garden, Aperture, New York and George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York

2015

Larry Sultan, exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Bonn and SMAK, Gent, Belgium

2014

Larry Sultan. Here and Home, Prestel Publishing, New York

2012

Thomas Zander (Ed.): Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel, Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, Germany

2010

Zander, Thomas / Görner, Veit / Germann, Martin (Ed.): Larry Sultan. Katherine Avenue, Steidl Publishers, Göttingen, Germany

2004

Larry Sultan. The Valley, Scalo Velag, Zurich, Switzerland

1992

Larry Sultan. Pictures From Home, Harry N. Abrams Inc., New York

1989

Headlands. The Marin Coast at the Golden Gate, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New York (in collaboration with Miles DeCoster, Mark Klett, Mike Mandel and Paul Metcalf)

1977

Mike Mandel / Larry Sultan. Evidence, self published

Public Collections

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland

Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama

Center for Creative Photography, Tuscon, Arizona

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California

List Art Center, Brown University, Boston, Massachusetts

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Museum of Modern Art, New York

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

New Mexico State University Art Gallery, Las Cruces, New Mexico

Oakland Museum, Oakland, California

San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California

The Jewish Museum, New York

The State of Washington

University of California Art Museum, Berkeley, California

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut

Canadian Center for Architecture, Montreal, Canada

Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France

Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

KMS Fine Art Group, Baar, Switzerland

Works

...

Exhibitions

Documents

News

Publications

Enquire about this work