Jun 6, 2012
Tom of Finland: The Grand Master of Homoerotic Art Exhibits at WEAM
By James Cubby
Tom of Finland, the pseudonym of Finnish artist Touko Laaksonen, is best known for his stylized in-your-face erotic and fetish art depicting heavily muscled men with large penises in tight or partially removed clothing. Some may be shocked by the work of Tom of Finland, who was labeled as the “most influential creator of gay pornographic images” by cultural historian Joseph W. Slade, however, his work has been exhibited in some of the world’s most important museums and galleries and is included in the permanent collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design to name a few. “The MoMA in New York owns a finished drawing depicting a young man and several studies,” states art collector Volker Morlock, who has been involved with the Tom of Finland Foundation since 1991 and is curator of TOM OF FINLAND: Male Masterworks, the major exhibition of Tom of Finland homoerotic drawings that opened at the World Erotic Art Museum during the Miami Beach Pride Weekend.
You can see the exhibition until July 31st at
World Erotic Art Museum
Miami Beach
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Apr 15, 2012
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Tom of Finland by Robert Mapplethorpe
Volker Morlock and Naomi Wilzig
PHOTOS BY DAVID L. JARRETT
Now through July 31, 2012
Apr 11, 2012
TOM OF FINLAND : MALE MASTERWORKS
DEFINITIVE COLLECTION OF THE PIONEER OF HOMOEROTIC ART,
TO OPEN EXTENSIVE EXHIBIT OF DRAWINGS
SATURDAY, APRIL 14 THROUGH JULY 31
AT MIAMI BEACH’S
WORLD EROTIC ART MUSEUM
TOM OF FINLAND (Finnish, 1920 – 1991), Untitled, 1989, Color pencil on paper, ToFF #89.17, © 1989 Tom of Finland Foundation
Tom of Finland,
born Touko Laaksonen in Kaarina, Finland,
who came to be known throughout the international art world
for his extraordinary homoerotic drawings depicting men at ease and equally at play,
will be the subject of a major exhibit.
OPENING FOR MIAMI BEACH GAY PRIDE
Raised in a farm country that was still rough and wild, Finland who came from a family of school teachers and studied art in Helsinki, was drawn to the muscular frontiersmen who became the inspiration for his drawings. It was following his release from the army after World War II that Touko was urged by advertising colleagues to submit his drawings to the American bodybuilding magazine, Physique Pictorial. The 1957 cover story of a laughing lumberjack became a sensation establishing his name as
“Tom of Finland.”
BY STEVE ROTHAUS, MIAMIHERALD.COM
Apr 7, 2012
Art collector Volker Morlock, who has been involved with Tom of Finland Foundation since 1991, editor of the anthology, Tom of Finland Retrospective III, and consultant for Taschen Publishing on the books Quaintance and Tom of Finland XXL, will be special guest speaker at the opening night reception. Morlock has curated the exhibit’s original artwork which illustrates the development of Finland’s techniques and the breadth of his subject matter through five decades of his prolific work.
TOM OF FINLAND (Finnish, 1920 – 1991), Untitled (Detail, from the "The Tattooed Sailor" series), 1962, Graphite on paper, ToFF Permanent Collection #62.07, © 1962 Tom of Finland Foundation
By depicting masculine men enjoying their sexuality free of shame, Tom of Finland has had an important effect on global culture, in fact, he has been noted as one of the five most influential artists of the last century.
With his work generating invitations to exhibit in museums and galleries worldwide, in 1984, Finland and friend Durk Dehner founded Tom of Finland Foundation (ToFF), lender of drawings and paintings which will also be on view.
Opening on the weekend of Miami Beach Gay Pride, the exhibit focuses on artwork that greatly influenced Gay culture by challenging oppressive stereotypes.
TOM OF FINLAND: Male Masterworks
Opening Saturday, April 14, at 8 P.M. at World Erotic Art Museum, 1205 Washington Avenue. Tickets are $15, no one under 18 admitted.
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