e-news #133 february 21, 2012

TOM  OF  FINLAND  FOUNDATION

Tip's of the Hat and Odds & Ends:

Tom of Finland – A New Anthology The list of artists who had major influence on the gay movement is rather short, since the movement itself is just a few decades old. But without a doubt Tom of Finland has to be included, the man whose amazing drawings tell us everything about love, lust and life of those hunks who have a good heart and live a simple life. Tom of Finland – Life and Work of a Gay Hero is a detailed anthology which is dedicated to his body of work from its early beginnings to the last years. With many drawings, a lot of photos and an extensive biography it gives you a portrait of this unique artist, which is as many-sided and life-embracing as the artist himself. Due in June, 2012 from Bruno Gmünder Verlag.

Queer Art Issue – On Sale Now Queer art was celebrated the night of Friday January 23 with NYC’s Josh Sparber plus some hookers in chonies at the Starrfucker issue #4 release party at LA's Faultline Bar. The boys ranged from adorable to the rugged, providing variety for whatever you’d be into. Check out the photos! Feel free to order your copy or any back issues here. A big thanks to all participants for making the event a success.

TOM OF FINLAND (Finnish, 1920 – 1991), Untitled 1962, Graphite on paper, ToFF #62.20, © 1962 Tom of Finland Foundation

ToFF says thanks to San Diego! Thank you to all of our supporters and a special thanks to: John McConnell Alpha Beta Foundation Bill Freyer Pleasures and Treasures Anthony Roller San Diego — A Great Place To Be With Great Friends To Have.

TOM OF FINLAND by PATRICK SARFATI

Tom of Finland Exhibition History Major Solo Exhibitions Major Group Exhibitions Public Collections Publications Video and Film Not bad for one of the biggest "bad boys" in Gay art history!

Backwoods
Illustrated by Michael Kirwan

Backwoods by the very humpable Natty Soltesz with the cover and interior illustrations by Michael Kirwan.

Here is the steamy underside of rural America, the back roads, back doors, and back rooms of a town called Groom, Pennsylvania.

Secrets are sacred in a place where one’s business is everyone’s business, and the erotic stories in Backwoods bare them all.

Conceived as a gay-themed erotic take on Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, Backwoods is by turn poignant and pornographic, romantic and raunchy, tender and titillating. Literal climaxes are underpinned by an authentic observation of small-town lives, both repressed and unreserved.

Available froim Amazon.

Special Edition — Japan
The Art of Man

A fine arts quarterly journal that seeks to bring balance to a genre of art that overwhelmingly favors the female figure.

It focuses on classical images in traditional media like painting, drawing and sculpture.

This SPECIAL EDITION focuses on artists from Japan. It includes interviews with Masahiko Takagi of Boom Productions, and five artists including Shimamura Saburou, Yujiro, Hideki Koh, Naoki Tatsuya, and Kenya Shimizu, a retrospective of the artist Shozo Nagano by Edward Moran, and the historical spotlight falls on Orientalism’s influence over western art in an article by art historian Grady Harp.

Get it from Firehouse Publishing

Tom of Finland in
Butt

Tom of Finland (Finnish, 1920 -1991),
Untitled (Panel 15 from Circus), 1975, Graphite on paper,
38.1 x 25.4 cm (15 x 10 inches),
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection #75.61,
© 1975 Tom of Finland Foundation

Butt Magazine, that is.

Here’s a drawing from Tom of Finland’s Circus. It was one in a series of comic books with the well-drawn Pekka (his other adventures included ‘The Loggers’, ‘The Rope’ and ‘Sex in the Shed’). These two — ‘Ladies and Gentlemen! The Flying Fuckers!’ — were the centerfold.

Originally published by Revolt Press in 1977, Finland’s and writer Ed Wood’s story of Pekka’s search for a job at the circus sees him fuck and suck his way through a cast of hunks like The Flying Fuckers and Cockman (who has the strongest cock in the world). Pekka gets so horny he spontaneously lays eggs.

Visit Butt Magazine

Artist In Passing
Steve Walker

STEVE WALKER, Both Sides Now,
2008, Acrylic on canvas, 48" x 36"

Canadian born artist Steve Walker (1961 - 2012) passed away in early January from a heart attack near his home in Costa Rica.

Steve made prodigious contributions to male Art. He will be missed and leaves us all saddened.

“I have always been inclined to let my work speak for itself, believing that should I need to explain it, I have perhaps failed.

"I hope that in its’ silence, the body of my work has given a voice to my life, the lives of others, and in doing so, the dignity of all people.”

— Steve Walker, Toronto, 2000

“Love, Light, Loss, Life.
Touching, Watching, Thinking.
Yearning, Reflecting, Fearing.
I paint about life, mine and yours.
My sexual orientation is unapologetically,
Simple part of that.”

— Steve Walker, Toronto, 2004

Artist In Passing
Mike Kelley

Click for a note from the editor of Artillery,
Tulsa Kinney.

As the art world knows, Los Angeles artist Mike Kelley passed away, an apparent suicide.

Mike was a friend of the Foundation and collected Tom’s work.

In 1985, when Mike was at CalArts he coordinated a lecture with Tom.

When Mike visited TOM House he shared his joy, his wisdom and his sense of humor.

When you left us, Mike, we were in the midst of working on a new anthology on Tom. We were writing about you and how those that create, inspire.

Thank you for giving so much to the world.

THE ANNALS OF TOM

In those days, a Gay man was made to feel nothing but shame about his feelings and his sexuality. I wanted my drawings to counteract that, to show Gay men being happy and positive about who they were. Oh, I didn’t sit down to think this all out carefully. But I knew — right from the start — that my men were going to be proud and happy men!

– Tom of Finland, c. 1984

TOM OF FINLAND (Finnish, 1920 – 1991),
Untitled (Preliminary drawing for #81.26)
1981, Graphite on paper, ToFF #0155,
© 1981 Tom of Finland Foundation

Click image to view Tom’s Galleries

Each generation questions the culture that came before them and then chooses what warrants inclusion into their lives. It is the responsibility of elders to inform of historical relevance, making aspects potentially more attractive to include, both into our collective and individual knowledge, of whom we are and from where we have come.

André Schlechtreim partnered professionally with a man who said some very poignant words about the artist, Tom of Finland. Harvey S. Shipley Miller of The Judith Rothschild Foundation stated that, “Tom of Finland was one of the five most influential artists of the last century; that influence transcended into the culture and became it.” Culture is like cloth, influences are threads woven into its fabric.

Harvey went on to say, “Tom opened the door way – the path – for so many to follow by not being afraid of homoerotic subject matter.” Tom is a true example of staying one’s course, for retaining one’s artistic ethics and in not compromising what one chooses to include in one’s art. In contemporary museum collections, the presence of Tom of Finland’s works, and those of other artists that depict overt sexuality, and to a lesser degree homosexuality, is now finally being seen.

Continued on Tom's Blog

Raja, Ravishing in TOM

Click Image to View Video
Superdragstar Raja onstage at Folsom Street Fair 2011

Raja is wearing a red custom TOM T by SOLD OUT Clothing.

Visit TOM House – Los Angeles

MINORU

Tom of Finland Foundation
ECHO PARK – LOS ANGELES
Appointments 213.250.1685

For A Look At The Entire Year, Visit The
F O U N D A T I O N     C A L E N D A R

the dispatch e-news is free and open to everyone interested in the foundation.

to change your subscription, visit here.

members of the press are especially invited to sign up for our press releases.