TOM OF FINLAND: Public and Private
runs till December 23rd at Antebellum
1643 North Las Palmas Avenue, Hollywood

This exhibition was mounted as a result of the interest shown, and encouragement given, by students visiting TOM House. Their enthusiasm towards this work has made us at Tom of Finland Foundation (ToFF) realize that, as was the case years ago when Tom discovered his rough sketches were valued works unto themselves, these works, too, will now have more opportunities to be enjoyed and receive their own status.

In order for Tom to create his men and perfect his drawing skills, he first needed images of them. In the early years of post-war Europe, magazines were not readily available so Tom learned how to photograph models and develop and print what he shot. He added the pictures to his catalog of print material he used as reference for his drawings.

After a preliminary sketch, Tom would draw a finished work and when that was complete he would need to document it. He would photograph them and create contact sheets to mail to customers from which they could order prints; prints which Tom produced in his own darkroom.

Tom enlisted his friends, geared them up (often in his own leathers) and posed them to capture the exact way he wanted the body and gear to look in his realistic drawings. The better Tom’s drawings became, the better they communicated his message of  pride and freedom.

Tom’s “doodles” were created at the kitchen table in the late evening while he was reading the daily news, which was usually then transformed into TOM’s News. International politicians and civil activists soon became over endowed, booted, “TOM’s Men”: It was Tom’s way to relax.

Tom often combined his doodles and his own photographs with tear sheets and clippings on the pages of his reference binders, which still reside in his studio at ToFF’s headquarters in Echo Park, where the artist lived the last decade of his life.

TOM OF FINLAND (Touko Laaksonen)
May 8, 1920 – November 7, 1991

Thank you to Mike Goldie for these photographs.

View the World of Tom of Finland Gallery HERE

Tom of Finland: Original Drawings

Every week Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday from Sat., June 25 until Sat., August 6

phd gallery
Price: $10 suggested donation opening night; free thereafter

By Paul Friswold

 When Touko Laaksonen was a young man, homosexuals had no public image because homosexuality was not discussed in the 1930s. That didn’t stop Tuoko from fantasizing about the loggers and farmers of his bucolic Finnish village — and it didn’t stop him from using these men as the inspiration for his drawings of burly men rough-housing, wrestling and engaging in more intimate physical acts. Touko eventually found work in advertising, but sent his illustrations to the major American physical fitness and muscle mags of the day, signing his work with the easier-to-pronounce “Tom.” The burgeoning gay community fell in love with Tom of Finland’s work not just because of his hyper-sexualized male nudes — although what’s not to love about that? — but because his subjects were always depicted as strong, happy and proud of their bodies and themselves. Gay pride was evident in Tom of Finland’s art long before it was a rallying call for the LGBT community. And in honor of PrideFest weekend, phd gallery hosts a unique exhibition, Tom of Finland: Original Drawings. As the title implies, these are not lithographs or reproductions, but genuine original graphite on paper illustrations from the hand of the master.

TOM OF FINLAND

Gay pride was evident in Tom of Finland’s art long before it was a rallying call for the LGBT community.

Tom of Finland: Original Drawings opens with a free public reception from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday, June 25, at phd gallery (2300 Cherokee Street; 314-664-6644 or www.phdstl.com). A suggested $10 donation on opening night benefits the Tom of Finland Foundation, an organization which promotes, protects and preserves erotic art. The work remains up through Saturday, August 6, and the gallery is open Thursday through Sunday. Admission is free after opening night.

RIVERFRONT TIMES

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]

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.

Martin Rosefeldt visited the show in Turku.

Nestled in the south-west Finland, Turku Saturday became the European Capital of Culture 2011. Throughout the year art events will succeed. To begin, the medieval city of 175,000 inhabitants celebrates native son: Tom of Finland, whose real name Touko Laaksonen. Died in 1991, he was the illustrator who has revolutionized the homoerotic imagery. Under his wealth, from the 50s, at a time when homosexuality was still a crime, gay people are virile, happy and sexually very active. Sailors, uniforms, night meetings … folklore fantasized that traded under the cloak and has toured the world. Since his death, Tom of Finland came in galleries and museums.

La capitale européenne de la culture met la pédale dure sur l’imagerie gay

Nichée au sud-ouest de la Finlande, Turku est devenue samedi la capitale européenne de la culture 2011. Tout au long de l’année, les événements artistiques vont se succéder. Pour commencer, la cité médiévale de 175.000 habitants célèbre un enfant du pays : Tom of Finland, de son vrai nom Touko Laaksonen. Disparu en 1991, il est l’illustrateur qui a révolutionné l’imagerie homoérotique. Sous sa mine, dès les années 50, à une époque où l’homosexualité était encore un crime, les gays sont virils, heureux et sexuellement très actifs. Marins, uniformes, rencontres nocturnes… un folklore fantasmé qu’on s’échange sous le manteau et qui a fait le tour du monde. Depuis sa mort, Tom of Finland est entré dans les galeries et les musées.

Dear Friends:

As you may know, I have just recently returned from a European tour where I opened a year-long retrospective exhibition of Touko Laaksonen (aka Tom of Finland) in his home region of Turku, Finland. My reason in being there, and that of the exhibition, is one in the same – to continue to maintain the influence of this important Gay artist’s work on popular culture. By doing so, a forum is provided for his message: Being Homosexual is something beautiful and that sexual desire and love is something to be proud of and happy about – not ashamed or guilty. This is a task not easily accomplished when you are up against two thousand years of Homosexuals being classified as an “abomination”.

Many places have a population raised under centuries of inbred discrimination layered deep within their history. This prejudice can only be identified when it surfaces in forms that signal an exclusion of who we are as a minority group living within the larger, established society. It is not only the larger Heterosexual audience that needs to be made aware of the cultural differences they have with Homosexuals — our own community needs reminding, as well. We need to have an ongoing consciousness that protects, preserves and promotes who we are and how we express it. We do not want to sell ourselves short through our sometimes desperate desire to “belong” – to seek “acceptance” – on someone else’s terms.

The incident that occurred recently within the City of West Hollywood is telling, in that it has taken place in what we assumed was the safety of our own backyard. It shows how pervasive man’s tendency is to forget the cultural differences of minority groups, with regards to their heritage, when they share so many other things in common with them. At Tom of Finland Foundation, this issue is yet another example of what we have been addressing over the past few years. It raises the question: What might our community leave behind in the process of being received into the larger global culture? As our fellowmen, who inhabit remote areas of the world, are introduced to the global culture, it is our duty to respect their rites and practices, just as their chieftains do. Our own elders and leaders bear the responsibility to teach that understanding these customs allows them to become gifts from which all can benefit.

Not unlike the ethnic – be it Russian, Jewish, Italian or Armenian – communities that have settled here in the Los Angeles area, the Homosexual community is struggling to hold onto the cultural language that distinguishes it and continues its rich history. The visual arts of the LGBT community speak to, and speak for, who we are as sexual beings – thus, the Erotic Art Fairs. These Fairs not only give our artists an environment where they can get to know one another, but also earn the respect and appreciation from their own community for the important role they play in building our cultural identity. This art defines our family, constantly changing over the decades and always celebrating us as a people.

I suppose there are some who visit our Fair for the first time who come expecting an excursion into a seedy porn shop or the like. What they discover is a beautiful garden full of amazing flowers of many descriptions; the remarkable creations of nature’s brilliance and power. One need not be Gay to appreciate splendor.

What has happened here in the past few weeks is a very important wake-up call for all of us. Now we must stay awake — and attuned – to our responsibilities to our own cultural heritage and that of all others with whom we coexist in this shifting world. It will take some time for all societies to honor who we are as part of nature’s creation; this incident is just a bump in that road. We are wise and kind. No one wants to discard, destroy or ignore the wonderful flowers that are part of this Homosexual exposition. Please be our guests, attend this year’s Fair and explore the garden with us.

Thank you for all that you are doing to make all of our lives richer.

I look forward to seeing you soon,

Durk Dehner
President & Cofounder
Tom of Finland Foundation

Tom of Finland speaking at California Institute of the Arts in 1985, Part I.

Part II.

“Tom of Finland has been an incredible inspiration to my work and within the Gay community, as well.”
-Mike Kelley, Professor/Artist, California Institute of the Arts, 1985 Graduate Lecture Series

Sex and BD Published: January 2011   TOM OF FINLAND (Finnish, 1920 – 1991), Untitled, 1964, Graphite on paper, 11.31” x 9.38”, Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection #64.04, © 2011 Tom of Finland Foundation

Fine Arts continues its exploration of the “ninth art” by addressing in this special issue of the relationship between sex and comics. There are few authors and genres that have little, one way or another, touched on the subject, be it with the elegance of a Manara erotic or Pratt and activism Twisted Sisters of, or with a scathing humor Reiser. Major authors in the industry oh so productive small sizes and Edifumetti Elvifrance and manga, through the vein diversion and hilarious parody, eroticism runs through the world of comic creation.It is this story that is told here, not to mention his entire party down and censored, with a selection of unpublished drawings ever shown. There is a four-page spread of the work of Tom of Finland and an illustrated article, “Gays et Lesbiennes”. Il est peu d’auteurs et peu de genres qui n’aient, d’une façon ou d’une autre, abordé le sujet, que ce soit avec l’élégance érotique d’un Manara ou d’un Pratt, avec le militantisme des Twisted Sisters, ou avec l’humour décapant d’un Reiser. Des grands auteurs à toute l’industrie oh combien productive des petits formats de Edifumetti et Elvifrance et des mangas, en passant par la veine hilarante du détournement et du pastiche, l’érotisme traverse tout l’univers de la création dessinée. C’est cette histoire qui est ici racontée, sans oublier toute sa partie cachée et censurée, avec une sélection inédite de dessins jamais montrés.

BeauxArts magazine

4 February 2011

TOM OF FINLAND, Untitled, 1987, Graphite on paper, ToFF Cat. 87.18, © 1987-2010 Tom of Finland Foundation

Encounter with Didier Lestrade. Journalist, writer, cofounder of Act-Up Paris, Magazine and Têtu, Didier Lestrade is lucky enough to own Tom of Finland originals. He explains his vision of Tom’s work in seven questions.

Hello Didier. First, let’s go back to the beginning… How did you discover Tom of Finland?
Like many people of my generation. His drawings started popping up in the 70’s in the few existing gay photo magazines. We’d stumble across a drawing, here and there, without really knowing who Tom of Finland was, his very name itself thus becoming an element of erotic obsession. We were wondering “who is this Tom of Finland?” as if he were a very handsome man, similar to his drawings, like one would imagine a Canadian lumberjack. It wasn’t long before I realized that among the numerous erotic artists of that era, he was unquestionably the most prolific and accomplished, technically speaking (only Rex and Bastille surpass him, but they are far lesser known). Above all, he invented a gay physique to satisfy the imagination when pictures of naked men were still rare. After that, I discovered his little “Kake” books that were only available in Amsterdam sex shops. He was already very famous among the gays.

Tom of Finland’s work wends its way between hyperrealism, irony, fantasy and political activism… In your opinion, is there a form of duality in his work?

No, it’s just the work of a leather man, not exactly pretty, who completely immersed himself in his vision of a very masculine man, without any hangups, endowed with a gorgeous physique. Put bluntly, Tom is a lightweight who didn’t like himself very much and who was totally enamoured of smiling, brawny men. He was therefore projecting the very essence of what the gays would later become. He envisioned a liberated sexuality, radiant, viceless – and virile. Tom is a man of vision, and we can see all of it throughout his work: every story told in his little “Kake” books is an example of a gay miracle – how men behave with other men. It always ends in smiles and laughter. A very militant idea in itself.

Is Tom of Finland a ‘pop’ artist? How to surpass the original audience of Tom of Finland?

Oh yes, he is a pop artist who considerably transcended the early sexual audience. First, Taschen did a lot to popularize his drawings. By showing erotic work as if it were pop art enough, it actually becomes pop art. Also, there’s something important about Tom’s vision. Before, his nudes with huge penises seemed daring. Today, this form of eroticism is so well-known around the world that it becomes more real. It’s like in all the comic books where the heroes’ attributes are exaggerated, but then we see that people actually try to copy these heroes – and they manage to. Let’s not forget Vivienne Westwood’s first t-shirts for the Seditionaries boutique in the late 70’s, with one of Tom’s drawings depicting two cowboys. That was the junction between gay and punk undergrounds. And from there…

Tom of Finland’s work was very controversial, especially in the late 1950’s. Physique Pictorial magazine even suggested he adopt that pseudonym… According to you, did Tom initiate a new liberation of expression?

Yes, he made many ideas relating to gay culture popular: nudes first of all, the S&M and leather side, gay fantasies, a happy sexuality, the obsession with physical appearance, and later the presence of black men, or his way of promoting condoms. What I’m trying to say is that Tom initiated, endorsed and exposed the secrets of gay culture to the general public. He is an ambassador and there is nothing more universal than drawing or photography to impart an idea. Tom also produced works on commission; I myself commissioned three drawings in 1982. Everybody could commission one or more pieces of original artwork (which were quite expensive) and he would gladly comply with everyone’s wishes: he could draw something soft, something hard, even a promotional piece for a bar or a t-shirt. But there are still many secrets to Tom’s work. For example, I am a big fan of his color drawings, which in my opinion, are far too little known.

Do you think that any man, regardless of his orientation, can identify with Tom of Finland’s characters?

I would like to think so, yes. Before, there were people who found this exaggerated beauty vaguely alienating. I didn’t. I found his work so unique, exciting, positive and innovative. There was a clear message to it. And then, later, with all of Taschen’s books, some people started saying that Tom’s work was too famous, that he had lost part of his essence when he broke into pop culture. In today’s gay community, some are so accustomed to Tom’s style that they find it banal, overused. That’s insane! It’s the goal of every artist, gay or not, to enter larger cultural spheres. If Tom was alive today, he’d be amazed to see straight young skaters or hipsters of all ages sport his drawings on their t-shirts, just ‘cause, hey, it’s a nice drawing, it means something, and it’s graphically perfect.

Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama is famous for idealizing, exaggerating and fetishizing female iconography. In a conversation we had with him, he confided that “the foundation of art is to astound”. Does this definition find a limit with Tom of Finland?

I don’t think you draw genitals that huge if you’re afraid of astounding people! But what’s extraordinary with Tom, it’s how much reality has caught up with his fantasy. When Tom first started drawing, it was inconceivable to believe that men could be so anatomically beautiful in every way. It truly was a work of fantasy. You had to tell yourself: “Ah, if only men could look like that in real life!”. And today, they really do, gay or straight. The human body has developed, just look on Tumblr how many men are living copies of Tom’s drawings. So the initial astonishment ends up becoming a reality in modern body types, and that is irrefutable evidence of art’s ability to surprise then become more accessible, to finally reach the world at large.

Previously distributed illicitly, his works are now widely recognized for their aesthetic quality and exhibited in prestigious galleries. Is Tom already a part of the collective unconscious?

Tom of Finland Foundation’s endeavor has channeled our perception of the artist’s work, primarily by protecting the pieces, then marketing them a certain way. Tom is a gay product, but everyone, gay or straight, knows Tom. In the past, people tended to laugh at his work, scoff at it a little, probably in response to its outrageousness. That laughter sometimes masked an embarrassment. He was too much. Today, Tom’s visual style has become an artistic brand, like Warhol’s Campbell soup, a generic stroke, recognizable by all – a mass culture commodity. It’s one of the rare examples of erotic art creation belonging to a very specific, even underground niche, being embraced by everyone. Barely 30 years were enough for Tom to go from best kept gay secret to universal symbol of an era.

didierlestrade.fr

Tom of Finland was not pretending when he used his finnish brothers as his inspiration for many of his works. The rugby player in this commerical is none other than Pete the Hunk of Finland , the foundations public relations liason for Finland… perfect aint it…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sPQAgRSydU