Tom of Finland | |
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 Laaksonenc. 1959 | |
| Born | Touko Valio Laaksonen 8 May 1920 Kaarina, Finland |
| Died | 7 November 1991(1991-11-07) (aged 71) Helsinki, Finland |
| Known for | Erotic illustration |
| Awards | Puupäähattu Prize (The Finnish Comics Society, 1990),[1] |
| Signature | |
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| Website | www |
Touko Valio Laaksonen (8 May 1920 – 7 November 1991), known by the pseudonymTom of Finland, was aFinnish artist who made stylizedhighly masculinizedhomoeroticart, and influenced late 20th-centurygay culture. He has been called the "most influential creator ofgay pornographic images" by cultural historian Joseph W. Slade.[2] Over the course of four decades, he produced some 3,500 illustrations, mostly featuring men with exaggerated sex traits, wearing tight or partially removed clothing.
Laaksonen was born on 8 May 1920 and raised by a middle-class family inKaarina, a town in southwesternFinland, near the city ofTurku.[3] Both of his parents Suoma and Edwin Laaksonen were schoolteachers at the grammar school that served Kaarina. The family lived in the school building's attached living quarters.[4]
He went to school in Turku and in 1939, at the age of 19, he moved toHelsinki to study advertising. In his spare time he also started drawingerotic images for his own pleasure,[3] based on images of male laborers he had seen from an early age. At first he kept these drawings hidden, but then destroyed them "at least by the time I went to serve the army."[5] The country became embroiled in theWinter War with theSoviet Union, and then became formally involved inWorld War II, and he was conscripted in February 1940 into theFinnish Army.[3] He served as an anti-aircraft officer, holding the rank of second lieutenant.[6] He later attributed hisfetishistic interest in uniformed men to encounters with men in army uniform, especially soldiers of the GermanWehrmacht serving in Finland at that time. "In my drawings I have no political statements to make, no ideology. I am thinking only about the picture itself. The wholeNazi philosophy, the racism and all that, is hateful to me, but of course I drew them anyway—they had the sexiest uniforms!"[7] After the war, in 1945, he returned to studies.[3]
Laaksonen's artwork of this period compared to later works is considered more romantic and softer with "gentle-featured shapes and forms".[3] The men featured weremiddle-class, as opposed to the sailors, bikers, lumberjacks, construction workers, and other members of stereotypically hypermasculineworking class groups that feature in his later work.[3] Another key difference is the lack of dramatic compositions, self-assertive poses, muscular bodies, and "detached exotic settings" that his later work embodied.[3]
In 1956 Laaksonen submitted drawings to the influential American magazinePhysique Pictorial, which premiered the images in the 1957 Spring issue under the pseudonymTom, as it resembled his given nameTouko. In the Winter issue later that year, editorBob Mizer coined the creditTom of Finland.[8] One of his pieces was featured on the Spring 1957 cover, depicting twolog drivers at work with a third man watching them.[3] Pulled from the Finnish mythology of lumberjacks representing strong masculinity, Laaksonen emphasized and privileged "homoerotic potentiality [...] relocating it in a gay context", a strategy repeated throughout his career.[3]
Thepost-World War II era saw the rise of thebiker subculture as rejecting "the reorganization and normalization of lifeafter the war, with its conformist, settled lifestyle."[9][10] Biker subculture was both marginal andoppositional, and provided postwar gay men with a stylized masculinity that included rebelliousness and danger.[9] This was in contrast to the then-prevailing stereotypes of the gay man as effeminate (sissy), as seen invaudeville and films going back to the first years of the industry.[11] Laaksonen was influenced by images of bikers as well as artwork ofGeorge Quaintance andEtienne, among others, that he cited as his precursors, "disseminated to gay readership through homoeroticphysique magazines" starting in 1950.[12][9] Laaksonen's drawings of bikers andleathermen capitalized on the leather and denim outfits which differentiated those men frommainstream culture and suggested they were untamed, physical, and self-empowered.[13][14] This in contrast with the mainstream, medically and psychologically sad and sensitive young gay man who is passive.[14][15] Laaksonen's drawings of this time "can be seen as consolidating an array of factors, styles and discourses already existing in the 1950s gay subcultures," which may have led to them being widely distributed and popularized within those cultures.[16] Starting his professional career in 1958 as a creative executive in renowned marketing agency,McCann Helsinki,[17] further encouraged his creativity.
Laaksonen's style and content in the late 1950s and early 1960s was partly influenced by the U.S. censorship codes that restricted depiction of "overt homosexual acts".[16] His work was published in thebeefcake genre that began in the 1930s and predominantly featured photographs of attractive, muscular young men in athletic poses often shown demonstrating exercises.[18] Their primary market was gay men, but because of the conservative andhomophobic social culture of the era,gay pornography was illegal and the publications were typically presented as dedicated to physical fitness and health.[18] They were often the only connection thatcloseted men had to their sexuality.[18] By this time, however, Laaksonen was rendering private commissions, so more explicit work was produced but remained unpublished.[16] Aside from his work at the advertising agency, Laaksonen operated a small mail-order business, distributing reproductions of his artwork around the world by post, though he did not generate much income this way.[19]
In the 1962 case ofMANual Enterprises v. Day theUnited States Supreme Court ruled that nude male photographs were not inherently obscene.[20]Softcore gay pornography magazines and films featuring fully nude models, some of themtumescent, quickly appeared and the pretense of being about exercise and fitness was dropped as controls on pornography were reduced.[18][21] By the end of the 1960s the market for beefcake magazines collapsed.[18] Laaksonen was able to publish his more overtly homoerotic work and it changed the context with "new possibilities and conventions for displaying frontal male nudity in magazines and movies."[16] Laaksonen reacted by publishing more explicit drawings and stylized his figures' fantastical aspects with exaggerated physical aspects, particularly their genitals and muscles.[16] In the late 1960s he developedKake, a character appearing in an ongoing series of comics, which debuted in 1968.
With thedecriminalization of male nudity, gay pornography became more mainstream in gay cultures, and Laaksonen's work along with it. By 1973, he was publishing erotic comic books and making inroads to the mainstream art world with exhibitions. In 1973 he gave up his full-time job at the Helsinki office of advertising agencyMcCann. "Since then I've lived in jeans and lived on my drawings," is how he described the lifestyle transition which occurred during this period.
By the mid-1970s he was also emphasizing aphotorealistic style, making aspects of the drawings appear more photographic.[16] Many of his drawings are based on photographs, but none are exact reproductions of them.[22] The photographic inspiration is used, on the one hand, to create lifelike, almost moving images, with convincing and active postures and gestures while Laaksonen exaggerates physical features and presents his ideal of masculine beauty and sexual allure, combining realism with fantasy.[22] InDaddy and the Muscle Academy – The Art, Life, and Times of Tom of Finland examples of photographs and the drawings based upon them are shown side by side.[22] Although he considered the photographs to be merely reference tools for his drawings, contemporary art students have seen them as complete works of art that stand on their own.[23]
In 1979, Laaksonen, with businessman and friendDurk Dehner, co-founded the Tom of Finland Company to preserve the copyright on his art, which had been widely pirated. Tom was introduced to Dehner by hispen pal and fellow erotic artistDom Orejudos.[24] Also in 1979, Laaksonen and Lou Thomas (a co-founder ofColt Studio) publishedTarget by Tom; The Natural Man, a series of photographs and drawings of adult performers includingBruno, Jeremy Brent, Chuck Gatlin, and Steve Sartori.[25]
In 1984 the Tom of FinlandFoundation was established to collect, preserve, and exhibithomoerotic artwork.[26] Although Laaksonen was quite successful at this point, with his biography on the best-seller list, andBenedikt Taschen, the world's largest art book publisher reprinting and expanding a monograph of his works, he was most proud of the Foundation.[27] The scope of the organization expanded to erotic works of all types, sponsored contests, exhibits, and started the groundwork for a museum of erotic art.[27]
Laaksonen developed a "wonderfully rich relationship" withBill Schmeling during the 1980s when they lived inLos Angeles; the two men set up artist salons in their homes and shared artistic practices as well as life experiences.[28] Schmeling cited Laaksonen as having considerably influenced his artistic style.[29]
Laaksonen was diagnosed withemphysema in 1988. Eventually the disease and medication caused his hands to tremble, leading him to switch media from pencil to pastel. He died in 1991 of an emphysema-induced stroke.[6]
Laaksonen's life partner was the dancer Veli "Nipa" Mäkinen with whom he shared his life for 28 years, until Mäkinen's death in 1981.[30][31]
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When examining the reception of Laaksonen's art, it is impossible to separate it from its original purpose. His "dirty drawings", as he himself called them, served primarily as gay erotica, intended to arouse the viewer.[32] As described by Rob Meijer, owner of a leathershop and art gallery in Amsterdam, "These works are not conversation pieces, they're masturbation pieces."[33] Many of his drawings were published in publications likePhysique Pictorial, or were advertisements and murals forbath houses,leather bars and clubs, which were erotically charged or explicitly sexual spaces.[32]
They also contributed to the spread of a new gay masculinity and confidence. In oral histories, for example, the works of Laaksonen are repeatedly described as influential for one's own sexual biography. Many men identified with his characters, who were pictured as masculine, virile and oftenblue-collar, thus defeating homophobic stereotypes ofeffeminacy. Kate Wolf writes that "Tom of Finland helped pave the way to gay liberation".[34]
Laaksonen's drawings were particularly popular in the flourishingleather subculture of the 1950s to 1970s. Tom's drawings were central to the development and dissemination of a more unified gay leather aesthetic, resulting in the so-called "clone look" of the 1970s and 1980s.[35]
Tom's work wasn't pornography. It was salvation.
— Robert J. Pierce, Tom of Finland: The Case for Gay Art, The Soho News (6 February 1980)
During his lifetime and beyond, Laaksonen's work has drawn both admiration and disdain from different quarters of the artistic community. Laaksonen developed a friendship with gay photographerRobert Mapplethorpe, whose work depictingsado-masochism andfetishiconography was also subject to controversy.[36][37]
A controversial theme in his drawings was the erotic treatment of men inNazi uniforms. They form a small part of his overall work, but the typically flattering visual treatment of these characters has led some viewers to infer sympathy or affinity for Nazism, and they have been omitted from most recent anthologies of his work.[38] Later in his career Laaksonen disavowed this work and was at pains to dissociate himself and his work from fascist or racist ideologies. He also depicted a significant number of black men in his drawings, with no overt racial or political message in the context in which they appear; although they bear some commonality with racistcaricatures of the "hypersexual" black male[according to whom?], these traits are shared by Laaksonen's white characters as well.[39]
Sheila Jeffreys offers a radical feminist critique of Laaksonen's work in her 2003 bookUnpacking Queer Politics.[40]
Art critics have mixed views about Laaksonen's work. His detailed drawing technique has led to him being described as a "master with a pencil", while in contrast a reviewer for Dutch newspaperHet Parool described his work as "illustrative but without expressivity".[41]
Writing forArtforum, Kevin Killian said that seeing Tom of Finland originals "produces a strong respect for his nimble, witty creation".[42]
In 2006, historianJack Fritscher wrote:[43]
If there is a gayMount Rushmore of four great pioneer pop artists, the faces would beChuck Arnett,Etienne,A. Jay, and Tom of Finland.
Laaksonen's artwork inspired numerous other artists to explore explicit sexuality in their own art,[44] and some (likeMATT[45]) dedicated works of art in his memory.[46][47]In 2019, theLos Angeles Times reported:[48]
Tom’s cocksure leather look — a breakout sultry aesthetic dating to the 1950s — captured the early attention of artists such asRobert Mapplethorpe,Raymond Pettibon andMike Kelley. It also influenced fashion and music: designersJean-Paul Gaultier andThierry Mugler andQueen’sFreddie Mercury. Today, Finland embraces its artist-son as a national hero, one backed by plenty of online merch — as diverse as sex toys and holiday ornaments. Tom’s bevy of built rogues, always affable and forever awash in unapologetic lust, has indeed aged well.
Laaksonen and Dehner established the Tom of Finland Company in 1978 to oversee the publication of Laaksonen's work and to combatcopyright infringement.[49][44] In 1995, Tom of Finland Clothing Company introduced a fashion line based on his works, which covers a wide array of looks besides the typified cutoff-jeans-and-jacket style of his drawings. The fashion line balances the originalhomoeroticism of the drawings with mainstream fashion culture, and their runway shows occur in many of the venues during the same times as other fashion companies.[citation needed]
Laaksonen and Dehner founded the nonprofit Tom of Finland Foundation (ToFF) in 1984 to preserve Laaksonen's catalog of work.[49] After several years, they broadened ToFF's mission to "offer a safe haven for all erotic art."[49] ToFF holds the world's largest collection of Laaksonen art (about 1,500 works) as well as one of the world's largest collections of erotic art (more than 100,000 images of materials).[48] ToFF produces an annual competition for emerging artists to exhibit their work for publicity and awards.[49] The foundation also hosts social events to fundraise and provide opportunity for like-minded fans of erotic art to meet, including the annual, two-day Tom of Finland Art and Culture Festival.[49]
ToFF's Erotic Artist Hall of Fame recognizes exemplary erotic artists includingH. R. Giger,Bill Schmeling,[50] andRex.[51]
ToFF derives some income from its public programming and by licensing Laaksonen's images and name for commercial use, but it depends on donations and membership dues.[49] ToFF is a separate entity distinct from the Tom of Finland Company, from which it receives financial support.[49]
ToFF is headquartered at TOM House,[52] a home inEcho Park, Los Angeles owned by Dehner at which Laaksonen lived for about a decade in his final years and where he created about 800 artworks (20% of his body of work).[53][48] Laaksonen stayed for six-months at a time due to the restrictions on hisvisa.[48] His bedroom has been preserved in much the same state as when he resided there before his 1991 death.[48] The 14-room home is filled with erotic art (even the ceilings are covered in it).[44] Other amenities include a basement dungeon (open by invitation only) and a "Pleasure Park" of sloped terraces and sitting areas in the backyard.[48]
ToFF offers tours of the house by appointment.[52] The home also hosts public events, including nude life drawing sessions.[48] TheLos Angeles City Council designated the house a Historic-Cultural Monument in 2016.[48]
In 2009, Laaksonen was inducted into the Leather Hall of Fame.[54] Some of his original works are at theLeather Archives & Museum in Chicago.[55][56]
New York'sMuseum of Modern Art has acquired several examples of Laaksonen's artwork for its permanent collection.[57] In 2006, MoMA in New York accepted five Tom of Finland drawings as part of a much larger gift from The Judith Rothschild Foundation. The trustee of The Judith Rothschild Foundation, Harvey S. Shipley Miller, said, "Tom of Finland is one of the five most influential artists of the twentieth century. As an artist he was superb, as an influence he was transcendent."[58] Hudson, of Feature Inc., New York, placed Tom of Finland's work in the collections ofRhode Island School of Design Museum of Art andArt Institute of Chicago. His work is also in the public Collections of:The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, USA;Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art; Turku, Finland;University of California Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley (California), USA;Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA;Kiasma, Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland;San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA; and Tom of Finland Foundation, Los Angeles, USA.
In 1999, an exhibition took place at the Institut Culturel Finlandais (Finnish Cultural Centre) in Paris.
In 2011 there was a large retrospective exhibition of Laaksonen's artwork inTurku, Finland. The exhibition was one of the official events in Turku'sEuropean Capital of Culture programme.[59]
In 2012,Kulturhuset presented a retrospective,Tom of Finland, in Stockholm, Sweden; and Tom of Finland's work was in theRobert Rauschenberg Foundation'sWe the People in New York City, USA.
In 2013,MOCA presentedBob Mizer & Tom of Finland in Los Angeles, USA. The artist's work was also seen inHAPPY BIRTHDAYGalerie Perrotin – 25 years in Lille, France;Leslie Lohman Museum'sRare and Raw in New York City, USA; and theInstitute of Contemporary Art'sKeep Your Timber Limber (Works on Paper) in London, England.
In 2015,Artists Space presented the exhibition "Tom of Finland: The Pleasure of Play" in New York City, USA.[60] The exhibition was also presented inKunsthalle Helsinki in 2016, complemented with additional material such as photos from family albums.[61]
In 2020, as part of the 100th birthday celebrations, "Tom of Finland: Love and Liberation" at London'sHouse of Illustration showed 40 originals with ephemera emphasizing fashion as an aspect of his work.
In 1991, Filmitakomo andYleisradio produced a documentary film,Daddy and the Muscle Academy,[2] directed byIlppo Pohjola. By the late 1980s, Laaksonen was well known in the gay world, but his "pneumatically muscled, meticulously rendered monster-donged icons of masculinity" received mainstream attention when the film – which includes hundreds of images of his work along with interviews – was released theatrically in Finland, won a FinnishJussi Award in 1992,[62] and was shown at film festivals and film art houses worldwide.[27][63][64] While praising the artwork's quality one critic noted the film's lauding of Laaksonen as agay pride icon while ignoring his work's "resemblance to bothS & M pornography and Fascist art" which she tied to Laaksonen's early sexual experiences with German soldiers duringWorld War II.[64]
FilmmakerWes Hurley credits Tom of Finland as an influence in his work, including his shortPeter and the Wolf and his cult comedy musicalWaxie Moon in Fallen Jewel.[65]
Variety announced in 2013 that Finnish directorDome Karukoski was set to make a biopic of Laaksonen, entitledTom of Finland. Helsinki-filmi produced it and secured exclusive rights. The film, released in February 2017 in Finland,[66] is the first biopic of the artist.[67]
In September 2014 the Finnish postal service,Itella Posti, published a set of three first class stamps featuring drawings by Laaksonen and in association with the stamps' release exhibited some of his correspondence at the Finnish Postal Museum.[68] Two of the stamps include portions of an illustration of a nude man sitting between the legs of another man dressed as a police officer; the other depicts nude buttocks with a man's face included between the thighs.[69][70] The stamp set exceeded Posti's expectations, with pre-orders from 178 countries, making it the best-selling stamp set in the service's history.[71]
The Natural Man. Six chromogenic prints. Each sheet 203x254 mm; 8x10 inches (sheet). 1975. Target by Tom. Eight offset lithographs. Each sheet 254x203 mm; 10x8 inches (sheet). Signed and dated "79" in the plate. This dual portfolio set was executed by photographer and co-founder of Target Studios, Lou Thomas. Thomas photographed the models and Tom of Finland drew the models from Thomas' photographs to make the prints. The models included Jeremy Brent, Chuck Gatlin, Steve Sartori, Roger, Barry, Brand, Dak, and Bruno.
Mäkinen menehtyi kurkunpääsyöpään heinäkuussa 1981
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