Finland’s cultural gifts to the world include Sibelius, the Moomins and an artist that the country has been less eager to celebrate. The name Touko Laaksonen may not be immediately familiar; and unless you are acquainted with homoerotic art, his alter ego Tom of Finland may not mean much either. But you have almost certainly seen the style he created: a pantheon of bikers, leather-men, lumberjacks and rodeo stars that defined the macho-gay image of the 1970s.
Born in 1920, Tom came from Turku, this year’s European Capital of Culture. Only the fifth-largest city in Finland, Turku has a well-preserved castle, the country’s oldest cathedral and a museum containing Sibelius’s final, half-smoked cigar. But it is hardly so culture-rich as to be able to ignore the region’s most internationally recognised artist.
A self-taught draughtsman, Laaksonen’s earliest homoerotic drawings were inspired by his service in the Finnish armed forces. After the war, he worked in advertising, but another career arrived in 1956 when the American publication Physique Pictorial – a bodybuilding magazine serving a predominately gay audience – published Laaksonen’s drawing of an Adonis-like lumberjack on the cover. The editors credited the work to “Tom of Finland”, a pseudonym Laaksonen was never entirely happy with, though American “beefcake” magazines became the major outlet for his work. In 1973, he was able to move to California and live exclusively from sales of erotic pictures.
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Although the Museum of Modern Art in New York contains examples of Tom’s work, and he has been shown at the Venice Biennale, the Finns have been slow to embrace him. This may not seem so surprising given that homosexuality was illegal in Finland until 1971, and same-sex partnerships were sanctioned only in 2002. Even today, the country isn’t noted for tolerance: last July, a Gay Pride march in Helsinki became the target of a gas attack.
The artistic director of Turku 2011, Suvi Innilä, admits that showing Tom was a controversial choice. “At first, I was not sure if you could include such images in a mainstream arts festival,” she says. “But then when I saw the quality of the original drawings on paper, there could be no doubt. He is, without question, the most significant and influential artist to come from this region. The idea of having a cultural year in Turku without him was unthinkable.”
Tom’s homecoming has been facilitated by the Liverpool-based arts organisation Homotopia, which mounted the first UK showing of his work, and expanded with contributions from the Tom of Finland Foundation in LA. Although Tom published his work in America, the illustrations explore a distinctively Scandinavian milieu – the Finnish cultural cornerstones of the sauna and the sausage stand feature prominently. Yet despite the explicit content of some of the images, this retrospective has not been hidden under the counter. It runs for a full year at Logomo, a new space that forms the focal point of the Turku 2011 celebrations. More than 50,000 people are expected to visit; in the experience of curator Gary Everett, fewer than half of them are likely to be gay.
“When we first showed Tom in Liverpool, 55% of the audience were straight women,” Everett says. “I think Tom can be quite liberating for women because it gives them the chance to see men objectified in a way that women have been objectified for centuries.”
So is it art or is it porn? Durk Dehner, founder of the Tom of Finland Foundation and a close friend of the artist, insists it can be both. “Tom is a unique case in that he is simultaneously found in mainstream galleries and adult bookstores. The vast majority of his output was masturbatory material to be kept under the bed, yet it also comes packaged in coffee-table volumes for open display.”
The drawings in the exhibition are modest in scale and mostly executed in pencil. They show Laaksonen to be a naturally gifted draughtsman who deliberately limited his range. Yet he arrived at a style that was instantly recognisable. Simply put, without Tom of Finland, there would have been no Village People.
“Tom created a kind of sexual Valhalla of Scandinavian gods which became a fantasy boot camp for the founders of the gay rights movement,” Dehner says. “Before Tom, gay men were seen as effeminate sissies. He was the first person to show gay men as macho, proud and assertive.”
Towards the end of Tom’s life, the drawings took on a darker hue: the sex becomes more joyless and a new addition appeared – the condom. “There’s a deep sorrow in the later pieces,” Dehner says. “After the spread of Aids, Tom experienced a huge burden of guilt. He had given people confidence to go out and explore their sexuality and he began to wonder if he was partly responsible for sending all those young men to their deaths.”
Yet 20 years after his death, the artist’s influence seems stronger than ever. “If you’ve ever bought a pair of Calvin Klein briefs, looked at a Levi’s ad or seen Freddie Mercury perform, you’ve experienced Tom of Finland,” Dehner says. “He’s unavoidable. In a sense, we are all Tom’s men now.”
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010
ewe
I have been looking for Tom of Finland for YEARZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
Yuriy
omg it’s kinda scary that hey are that huge…
David K
@Yuriy: Interesting enough, a lot of the characters in ToF’s later work were modelled after his friends in the SF leather scene, using amalgamations of the best features of several different real-life guys in 1 of his drawings.
declanto
Tom of Finland is seminal to the history of the gay movement. The Gold Coast in Chicago also served as one of his prime inspirations.
There are several respectable publications of his work. Robert Mapplethorpe was inspired by his works as well.
Luke
The following sentence strikes me as uninformed: “This may not seem so surprising given that homosexuality was illegal in Finland until 1971, and same-sex partnerships were sanctioned only in 2002.”
The phrase “only in 2002” makes it seem like Finland was late in legalising registered partnerships, when in fact it was fairly early in doing so. Five years earlier, registered partnerships had only been legal in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Greenland. This year, Finland is expected to legalise same-sex marriage.
With decriminalisation happening in 1971, Finland wasn’t all that late to that party either. By the mid-1960s, only eight European countries had decriminalised gay sex.
samthor
pretty good article. I did not know he was self taught. He’s been a huge influence on erotic art in general.
aalan brickman
SEE QUEERTY…The comments on here just prove once you get rid of morning goods…the hate hypocrites will just find something else to whine about….
chpinnlr
What is the deal with everyone missing morning goods!?! This is the Internet! there are a billion sites with half (and completely) naked guys on it. I know because I have at least half of them in my bookmarks folder!
declanto
@aalan brickman: Oh, Allen, We’ve missed your insightful commentary to MG, how we all looked forward to your daily admonishments …”Don’t be jealous!” If there’s one thing I miss about MG, it’s your repetitious whining. Even here, where there’s absolutely NO reason to call “Hate-alert” you just can’t resist. Do you have something germain to add to this thread???
divkid
im all for big dicks. really i am. as big as you like. but this guys sizequeenery distracts from the hotness of his figures. and thats why imho it’s not art.
his ability to capture the essence of the idealized body, and especially his exquisite rendering of the beauty of a masculine face could have done that work alone.
he seems to be working a young marlon brando/james dean aesthetic. and not a trace of gayface to be seen, nor that incessant vacuous smiling synonymous with the contemporary gay thing.
less smiling people, lets bring back the moody sexy sullen bad-boy thing.
nowadays, unfortunately, the only time my dick gets a twitch from the guys featured on this site is when, alas, on closer inspection they appear to have be indicted on a hate crime charge. oh well.
divkid
okay the smiling construction worker with the hard hat and tache looks pretty gay but otherwise my point still stands…
scribe
I met an young artist a few weeks ago. Very str8 laced sort of guy, only 26 yrs old. Anyway I went to his apartment to drop off somethings and pick up a painting he was doing for me and Tom of finland prints was all over his house. I was so happy to see the work, mostly because it means that his work continues to live on through younger people. I figured the internet killed tom of finland work along with Honcho, Mandate and the like….
declanto
@divkid: this guys sizequeenery distracts from the hotness of his figures. and thats why imho it’s not art.
Realism does not make for great art, nor is it a requirement for art appreciation. His depiction of disproportionately huge members is consistent with the rest of his figures, which you seem to enjoy. IMHO, he’s hot.