Exhibition

Mike Mandel

Good 70s

May 20–August 20, 2017

Floor 3

Good 70s explores the tongue-in-cheek, socially engaged work of conceptual artist and photographer Mike Mandel (American, b. 1950), focusing on projects he made during what was, for him, an incredibly productive decade. This exhibition includes photographs, books, and a film, all made during the same period he was collaborating with his friend, the photographer Larry Sultan. (A retrospective of Sultan’s work, Larry Sultan: Here and Home, which also includes some of the artists’ collaborative work, is on view on floor 3 from April 15 to July 23, 2017.)

Some of Mandel’s diverse projects from the 1970s include Myself: Timed Exposures (1971), in which he inserts himself into funny and commonplace situations; Seven Never Before Published Portraits of Edward Weston (1974), which reproduces correspondence he initiated with men named Edward Weston; his Baseball-Photographer Trading Cards (1975), featuring subjects such as Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham; and his book SF Giants: An Oral History (1979).

Exhibition Preview

Artwork image, Mike Mandel, Myself: Timed Exposures

Artwork image, Mike Mandel, Untitled, from the series People in Cars

Artwork image, Mike Mandel, Untitled, from the series Mrs. Kilpatric

Artwork image, Mike Mandel, Untitled, from the series Motels

Artwork image, Mike Mandel, Baseball photographer trading card Ansel Adams

Artwork image, Mike Mandel, Baseball-Photographer Trading Card #88 (Imogen Cunningham)

Artwork image, Mike Mandel, Untitled from SF Giants

Mike Mandel, Untitled, from the series Myself: Timed Exposures, 1971, printed 2015; courtesy the artist; © Mike Mandel

Mike Mandel, Untitled, from the portfolio People in Cars, 1970, printed 2014; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Mike Mandel

Mike Mandel, Untitled, from the series Mrs. Kilpatric, 1974; courtesy the artist; © Mike Mandel

Mike Mandel, Untitled, from the series Motels, 1974, printed 2017; courtesy the artist; © Mike Mandel

Mike Mandel, Baseball-Photographer Trading Card #21 (Ansel Adams), 1975; courtesy the artist; © Mike Mandel

Mike Mandel, Baseball-Photographer Trading Card #88 (Imogen Cunningham), 1975; courtesy the artist; © Mike Mandel

Mike Mandel, Untitled, from the series SF Giants: An Oral History, 1978–1979; courtesy the artist; © Mike Mandel

Mike Mandel, Untitled, from the series Prelude to Making Good Time, 1979, printed 2016; courtesy the artist; © Mike Mandel

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The year was 1958: the Dodgers left Brooklyn for Los Angeles, the Giants left New York for San Francisco, and Mike Mandel — then eight years old and living in Los Angeles — fell in love with baseball. Mandel has turned to baseball as a subject several times in his career, as in his iconic Baseball-Photographer Trading Cards (1975) and his book SF Giants: An Oral History (1979).

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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.