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This article came up in the Tom of Finland Google Alerts. The pink princess room has Tom pillows, it’s as if I designed it myself!!! We should get a copy of this issue for the archives…

 “To offset the pink, he chose black-and-white accents such as Tom of Finland toile pillows—which feature leather-clad men with whips.”

Most Absurd Quotes in New York Mag’s “Extreme Decor” Issue

The bedroom in designer Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz’s beach house in the Rockaways, Queens.

Click here to view the full photogallery.

Photos: Dean Kaufman

In a city full of extreme living—from 90-square-foot apartments to those on the market for $90M—there are only so many ways to woo New York magazine design editor Wendy Goodman. As has been previously established, one’s space must be somehow superlative, with bonus points awarded to anything designed by Annabelle Seldorf, lighting fixtures made of industrial bread tins, and rooms that include all of the following at once: Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Kelly Wearstler, Jonathan Adler, Zaha Hadid, taupe, MoMA, Wedgwood, Visionaire, platinum, and B&B Italia. Which makes the just-released Spring 2011 Design Issue—aptly named “Extreme Decor”—particularly fascinating. In it, Goodman gets a closer look at that incredible crocheted apartment we featured here on Curbed in March, as well as Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz’s beach house, Amy Sedaris’s crafting area, and fashion designer Sylvia Heisel’s crazy, black-and-white rental (first photo above). The photos above speak for themselves, but then again, so do these:

· “On the walls, Olek crocheted graphic representations of text messages from various former lovers. ‘They can be forgiven once they are crocheted,’ she says.” [link]

· “Olek’s crochet needle will stop at no item, not even leftovers in the fridge.” [link]

· “During the day, the bed is made up with a formal roll pillow with canvas wrapped around it and a giant paint-spattered bedspread.” [link]

· “When describing the living room, Nixon quotes Diana Vreeland: ‘Pink is the navy blue of India.’” [link]

· “Sedaris’s kitchen is filled with fake meat and other artificial edibles.” [link]

· “What Sedaris calls the ‘baby’s room’ is actually her crafting corner. (‘I never have children over, by the way.’)” [link]

· Sedaris’s living room contains some of her favorite pieces, including a lamp shade made with hair samples and a teacup filled with fake tea.” [link]

· “‘Pink is usually for little girls. So I thought, Why don’t we see if we can make it strong and powerful, for two men?’ Noriega-Ortiz says.” [link]

· “To offset the pink, he chose black-and-white accents such as Tom of Finland toile pillows—which feature leather-clad men with whips.” [link]

Hey Guys—I’m always attuned to any mention of Tom or erotic art in general whilst snuffling through various media platforms. It’s just second nature to get inklings of how our specialty is perceived beyond the confines of our august community.  We’re pretty knowledgeable about the field and Tom’s contribution in particular but I think it’s interesting to see how Tom’s oeuvre is translated in the “outside” world. Recently I was perusing DANGEROUS MINDS and although the site focuses mainly on music, they have pieces on various other cultural and political features as well. I found this article about a truly remarkable erotic artist from Japan and a Tom reference. I thought I’d share it with the folks here soooo….

http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/smotherly_love_the_erotic_art_of_namio_harukawa_nsfw/

I’m pretty excited to know that there are so many people worldwide that know who Tom is and how his art has permeated the social consciousness. Also, I just gotta say that it is a pleasure to be introduced to an artist I’ve never heard of before, especially one with a truly unique style, one that is totally at odds with the trite, patriarchal and misogynistic attitude common in so many “straight” illustrations…Later, Michael

Featured This Week

never alone
a Look at Tom and His Friends

Through June 26, 2011

Fri. 4:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.

Sat.-Sun. 1 p.m.-5 p.m.

ONE Archives Gallery & Museum

626 N. Robertson Blvd.

West Hollywood

Never Alone-Presented by ONE Archives Gallery & Museum, never alone features works by artists from the Tom of Finland Foundation permanent collection.
Visit Tom of Finland Foundation for more information.

Arts and cultural affairs information and programming is brought to you by the City of West Hollywood through its Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission.
More information on the arts in West Hollywood.

Los Angeles Times
03-22-2011

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa doesn’t agree with a proposal floated by the city’s chief fiscal officer calling for eliminating government support for the arts as a way to address a $404-million budget shortfall, a top aide said Monday.

Villaraigosa “understands the power and importance of the arts and opposes the elimination of the Department of Cultural Affairs,” the statement said, noting that the mayor had “received many calls and e-mails” on Monday as word got out about the memo Santana had sent to the mayor, City Council President Eric Garcetti, and Bernard Parks, who is chairman of the council’s budget and finance committee.

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE

A DECENT STATE: Art & Policy Symposium

Presented by the Tom of Finland Foundation at the 16th Annual West Hollywood – Los Angeles Erotic Art Fair Weekend, March 27th, 2011. Co-Sponsored by the California LGBT Arts Alliance

The theme of this panel discussion was the government’s role in determining what the public sees. The discussion focused on censorship of LGBT and erotic art by the NEA and NEH after the Mapplethorpe controversy of the late 1980’s, the creation at that time of the National Endowment for the Arts’ “decency clause” and the question “Can publicly-funded institutions be politically neutral spaces?”

The symposium was moderated by Sharp, VP/Curator for the Tom of Finland Foundation. Participants included: Ivy Bottini, Artist and activist; Greg Day, Southern California Coordinator, California LGBT Arts Alliance; Dallas Dishman, Commissioner, West Hollywood Art & Cultural Affairs Commission; Diane Duke, Executive Director, Free Speech Coalition; Leo Garcia, Executive Director / Artistic Director, Highways Performance Space and Gallery; and Abbe Land, Councilmember, City of West Hollywood.

This was a lively discussion about strategies for promoting LGBT arts and for fighting government censorship. The panel also discussed the impact on the LA LGBT arts community of LACMA and the J. Paul Getty Trust’s recent acquisition of 2,000 of Mapplethorpe’s most famous photographs including the “XYZ Portfolio” and the Getty Research Institute’s ownership of the Mapplethorpe archive.

AND ON THE VERY SAME DAY, AN ARTICLE IN THE WASHINGTON POST

Culture warriors’ cry to art museums: Toughen up against political pressure

By Jacqueline Trescott
The Washington Post
3/27/2011

In the aftermath of the hys­teria around the Robert Mapple­thorpe exhibition 22 years ago, the museum world has become timid and predictable, veterans of that battle argue.

“I do think the museum world has became very safe,” said Dennis Barrie, the former director of the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. The center featured Mapplethorpe in 1990, and the center and Barrie paid a price. The local sheriff staged a raid, setting off a round of national news stories and protests, and Barrie was charged with obscen­ity. He was acquitted but left the museum.

So when the National Portrait Gallery opened a show last October on same-sex art and identity, the art world hoped it would reverse that trend of self-censorship. Instead, the artistic merits of the show were overshadowed by the Smithsonian’s decision to remove a video by gay artist David Wojnarowicz after complaints from conservative pundits and politicians.

The action was called “shameful” by artist and Yale School of Art Dean Robert Storr, who opened a meeting Saturday at the Corcoran Gallery of Art to discuss the aftermath of the two incidents decades apart.

“The culture wars are back,” Storr said, speaking to 100 people. Critics are insatiable and clever, he said. “We have to be cleverer.”

Veterans of the political and cultural frenzy over Map­ple­thorpe spoke of lessons learned. “You think you are through with politics — you are never through with politics,” Barrie said.

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE.