Tom of Finland XXL

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In 1991, Filmitakomo and Yleisradio produced a documentary film, Daddy and the Muscle Academy, [2] directed by Ilppo Pohjola. By the late 1980s, Laaksonen was well known in the gay world, but his "pneumatically muscled, meticulously rendered monster-donged icons of masculinity" received mainstream attention when the film – which includes hundreds of images of his work along with interviews – was released theatrically in Finland, won a Finnish Jussi Award in 1992, [40] and was shown at film festivals and film art houses worldwide. [25] [41] [42] While praising the artwork's quality one critic noted the film's lauding of Laaksonen as a gay pride icon while ignoring his work's "resemblance to both S & M pornography and Fascist art" which she tied to Laaksonen's early sexual experiences with German soldiers during World War II. [42] The foundation has partnered with various retailers, from Comme des Garçons to Happy Hour Skateboards. Flavor Paper even created x-rated wallpaper in collaboration with Michael Reynolds and Hoffman Creative. Waugh, Thomas: Hard to Imagine: Gay Male Eroticism in Photography and Film from Their Beginnings to Stonewall. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-231-09998-3. In 2020, as part of the 100th birthday celebrations, "Tom of Finland: Love and Liberation" at London's House of Illustration showed 40 originals with ephemera emphasizing fashion as an aspect of his work. In 1999, an exhibition took place at the Institut Culturel Finlandais ( Finnish Cultural Centre) in Paris.

Karstens isn’t surprised so many mainstream retailers have been clamoring to collaborate with the Tom of Finland Foundation. Löfström, Jan (1998), "Scandinavian homosexualities: essays on gay and lesbian studies", Journal of homosexuality, Routledge, vol.35, no.3–4, pp.189–206, ISBN 0-7890-0508-5 There is considerable argument over whether his depiction of "supermen" (male characters with huge sexual organs and muscles) is facile and distasteful, or whether there is a deeper complexity in the work which plays with and subverts those stereotypes. For example, some critics have noted instances of apparent tenderness between traditionally tough, masculine characters, or playful smiles in sado-masochistic scenes. [ citation needed] Tom of Finland to appear on stamps in September". Itella Posti. 13 April 2014. Archived from the original on 15 April 2014 . Retrieved 17 April 2014. Bob Mizer and Tom of Finland", Kate Wolf, Artforum International Magazine (Online), 21 November 2013In either case, there remains a large constituency who admire the work on a purely utilitarian basis; as described by Rob Meijer, owner of a leathershop and art gallery in Amsterdam, "These works are not conversation pieces, they're masturbation pieces." [ citation needed] He went to school in Turku and in 1939, at the age of 19, he moved to Helsinki to study advertising. In his spare time he also started drawing erotic images for his own pleasure, [3] based on images of male laborers he had seen from an early age. At first he kept these drawings hidden, but then destroyed them "at least by the time I went to serve the army." [5] The country became embroiled in the Winter War with the Soviet Union, and then became formally involved in World War II, and he was conscripted in February 1940 into the Finnish Army. [3] He served as an anti-aircraft officer, holding the rank of second lieutenant. [6] He later attributed his fetishistic interest in uniformed men to encounters with men in army uniform, especially soldiers of the German Wehrmacht serving in Finland at that time. "In my drawings I have no political statements to make, no ideology. I am thinking only about the picture itself. The whole Nazi philosophy, the racism and all that, is hateful to me, but of course I drew them anyway—they had the sexiest uniforms!" [7] After the war, in 1945, he returned to studies. [3]

Filmmaker Wes Hurley credits Tom of Finland as an influence in his work, including his short Peter and the Wolf and his cult comedy musical Waxie Moon in Fallen Jewel. [43] Suomen sarjakuvaseura ry - 1990: Touko Laaksonen - Tom of Finland". The Finnish Comics Society (in Finnish) . Retrieved 19 January 2019.

In the most universal terms, Tom’s body of work represents tolerance, acceptance, pride, joy, and freedom,” Joakim Andreasson, director of licensing for Tom of Finland, told Fashion Network . “His imagery has become symbolic of the advancement of gay rights and sexual freedom.” Tom of Finland preparatory sketches, left 1964, right 1977. Sketches provided by Tom of Finland Foundation, Inc. Touko Valio Laaksonen, the queer Finnish artist better known as Tom of Finland, died in 1991. But his iconic homoerotic drawings are as popular now as in the 1950s and ‘60s — if not more so. Playboy bunnies, pinup girls — they’ve been the norm for ages. It was time for it to happen to men,” he said. “There’s been a window opened to acceptance of male nudes, of homoerotic art. It’s a catching up — an emancipation of the male body.” Tom of Finland is arguably the defining influential artist of my life, largely because his work showed me and inspired me to see sex as something enjoyable. And that influence is still felt to this day by those who discover and come to appreciate Tom's art. a b c Hooven, F. Valentine, III: Gay histories and cultures: an encyclopedia. Volume 2 of Encyclopedia of lesbian and gay histories and cultures. p. 884. George E. Haggerty, editor. Taylor & Francis, 2000. ISBN 0-8153-3354-4

With the decriminalization of male nudity, gay pornography became more mainstream in gay cultures, and Laaksonen's work along with it. By 1973, he was publishing erotic comic books and making inroads to the mainstream art world with exhibitions. In 1973 he gave up his full-time job at the Helsinki office of advertising agency McCann. "Since then I've lived in jeans and lived on my drawings," is how he described the lifestyle transition which occurred during this period. Prono, Luca: Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Popular Culture. p. 258. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008. ISBN 978-0-313-33599-0 Ramakers, Mischa. Dirty Pictures: Tom of Finland, Masculinity and Homosexuality. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2001. ISBN 0-312-20526-0 Tom of Finland: The Comic Collection. Vol. 1–5. Dian Hanson, ed. London: Taschen, 2005. ISBN 978-3-8228-3849-5New York's Museum of Modern Art has acquired several examples of Laaksonen's artwork for its permanent collection. [35] In 2006, MoMA in New York accepted five Tom of Finland drawings as part of a much larger gift from The Judith Rothschild Foundation. The trustee of The Judith Rothschild Foundation, Harvey S. Shipley Miller, said, "Tom of Finland is one of the five most influential artists of the twentieth century. As an artist he was superb, as an influence he was transcendent." [36] Hudson, of Feature Inc., New York, placed Tom of Finland's work in the collections of Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art and Art Institute of Chicago. His work is also in the public Collections of: The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, USA; Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art; Turku, Finland; University of California Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley (California), USA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA; Kiasma, Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA; and Tom of Finland Foundation, Los Angeles, USA. Not all the illustrations in the sketchbook are preparatory works, what Laaksonen called ‘roughs,’ where he’s arranging figures and compositions.

a b Festival Diary: Bad karma and the Big Yin: The Billy Connolly Affair and trouble and strife with The Bay City Rollers. Sheila Johnston reports from the 46th Edinburgh International Film Festival Sheila Johnston, The Independent, 21 August 1992. A new book on Tom of Finland takes a novel approach to the legendary artist's work. Rather than highlight Tom's later work, Tom of Finland: An Imaginary Sketchbook is instead a cross-section of his less polished and unfinished freehand drawings and sketches. Edited by author, art dealer, and collector Juerg Judin and German art critic and writer Pay Matthis Karstens just in time for Pride, the book has the look and feel of a sketchbook. FROM ADVERTISING TO GAY EROTICA: THE WORK OF TOM OF FINLAND". Tom of Finland Foundation. 15 June 2015 . Retrieved 28 March 2021. You can see him trying a gesture, erasing it , and finding the right one,” Karstens said. “It’s very different from the finished works, which are so ‘finished.’”In her drawings for TOM, Prada wanted to pay homage to the difficulties of being a gay man at the height of Finland’s fame in the mid-20th century, but also approach it with her own femininity. “All the gay culture we can never forget,” she says. “We need to be more aware of that time when the struggle of being a gay man was part of the art. I think the female perspective comes through in a way that’s more emotional and erotic than sexual. It’s also a little bit chic.” Karstens and Juden worked closely with the Tom of Finland Foundation to pull highlights from a more extensive collection of Laaksonen’s sketches, some of which appeared in public for the first time in a 2017 exhibition. An Imaginary Sketchbook has almost no text, save for an afterward by the book’s co-editors, Juerg Judin and Pay Matthis Karstens of Berlin’s Galerie Judin. The cover of Tom of Finland: An Imaginary Sketchbook, left, and a preparatory drawing, 1988. Images provided by Tom of Finland Foundation, Inc. a b Slade, Joseph W.: Pornography and Sexual Representation: A Reference Guide, Volume 2. Pp. 545–546. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001. ISBN 0-313-27568-8 a b c Ilppo Pohjola (author): Kari Paljakka and Alvaro Pardo (producers): Daddy and the Muscle Academy: Tom of Finland: United Kingdom: Oracle Home Entertainment: 2002.