Kake has been described by Susanna Paasonen as Laaksonen's "most iconic character," [20] and by Hooven as "the gay world’s most familiar pin-up icon." [1] Editor Dian Hanson describes Kake as "a sort of Johnny Appleseed traveling the world on his motorcycle spreading the seeds of liberated, mutually satisfying, ecstatically explicit gay sex." [2] Hanson argues that the series was an expression of Laaksonen's desire to depict sex between men that was freed from internalized homophobia – Laaksonen himself stated that his goal for his art was to draw "proud men who were happy having sex" [2] – noting how characters in Kake "break the affection barrier" by kissing and caressing each other in addition to performing sexual acts, and that Laaksonen depicts Kake assuming both active and passive roles during sex. [12] Throughout this timeline, Tom of Finland has remained a quintessential artist’s artist. In the early 1960s, the pioneering, boundary-pushing gay artist Robert Mapplethorpe, according to Patti Smith, discovered Tom of Finland’s work in a used bookstall in Times Square. Mapplethorpe would become a crucial link in exposing Laaksonen’s work to the contemporary art world. Mapplethorpe attended Laaksonen’s debut San Francisco exhibition at the pioneering queer art gallery Fey-Way Studios. Dehner facilitated the show, and Mapplethorpe’s enthusiasm helped the artist land an exhibition at Robert Samuel Gallery in New York two years later.

Tom of Finland - Artist - David Kordansky Gallery Tom of Finland - Artist - David Kordansky Gallery

New York's Museum of Modern Art has acquired several examples of Laaksonen's artwork for its permanent collection. [35] 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." [36] Hudson, of Feature Inc., New York, placed Tom of Finland's work in the collections of Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art and Art 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. S.R. Sharp, who is the vice-president and curator at the Tom of Finland Foundation, says artists like Kelley revered Tom because his art did nothing less than offer permission to explore sexuality and explicit imagery in their own work. “And they always have remembered that,” Sharp says. “And they’ve carried his legacy for many, many, many years.”

Pen and Ink 1965 – 1989

We kind of take Tom of Finland for granted, because, let’s be honest, as gay men, do we really need any more images of super muscular white dudes? No, of course not. But, also, he was an excellent portraitist, probably the last of the greatest of them, in a world where the camera has become omni-accessible. Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen, 1920–1991) is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century’s most influential artists for his groundbreaking representation of the male figure. In his youth, Tom trained at an advertising school, but what he would come to call his “dirty drawings,” which he first began developing as a teenager, were the true focus of his attention, both during this formative period and throughout the entirety of his life. These masterful renderings of virile men engrossed in acts of homoerotic desire can be approached along several interpretative lines—art historical, social, technical—but each of them points to the revolutionary nature of his project. A master draftsman, whose passion for both his medium and his subject matter enabled him to become a powerful cultural force, Tom gave form to an imaginative universe that in turn helped fuel real-world liberation movements and enabled gay men to access their strength in new ways. Tom's drawings reaffirm the centrality of sexuality, joy, and the body in all areas of human endeavor. Tom of Finland’s Untitled (Preparatory Drawing for Kake Vol. 16 — “Sex on the Train”) (1974). Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles Tom of Finland Keep Your Timber Limber (Works on Paper) Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London

Tom of Finland - Pen and Ink 1965 – 1989 - Exhibitions Tom of Finland - Pen and Ink 1965 – 1989 - Exhibitions

There is considerable argument over whether his depiction of "supermen" (male characters with huge sexual organs and muscles) is facile and distasteful, or whether there is a deeper complexity in the work which plays with and subverts those stereotypes. For example, some critics have noted instances of apparent tenderness between traditionally tough, masculine characters, or playful smiles in sado-masochistic scenes. [ citation needed]

From Working Men to Men in Uniforms

One simply cannot praise Homer’s peerless oeuvre enough. We all read Iliad and Odyssey several times, and surely, a considerable amount of us has... To learn more about Tom of Finland, please view this lecturehe delivered at CalArts in 1985 (at the invitation of Mike Kelley), as well as these articles from Artforum.com, Art in America, DazedDigital.com, Drummer, The Guardian, and Vice.com.

Tom of Finland and friends: battle of the beefcakes – in Tom of Finland and friends: battle of the beefcakes – in

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 newspaper Het Parool described his work as "illustrative but without expressivity". [29]Hooven, F. Valentine III (2012). Tom of Finland: Life and Work of a Gay Hero. Berlin: Bruno Gmünder Verlag. ISBN 978-3-86787-166-2. Tom of Finland to appear on stamps in September". Itella Posti. 13 April 2014. Archived from the original on 15 April 2014 . Retrieved 17 April 2014. Tom of Finland’s influence is so vast that it can be hard to calculate. Through sheer force of imagination, the artist was able to manifest a hyper-real, hypermasculine style of queer erotic illustration that would end up inspiring not just legions of visual artists but entire subcultures. Any time a stylist puts a young pop star in a leather biker cap for a magazine shoot, the impact of Tom of Finland is not far-off. The final Kake comic, Oversexed Office, was published in 1986; [12] after being diagnosed with emphysema in 1988, Laaksonen developed a tremble in his hands that restricted his ability to draw, and he died in 1991. [18] The series has been anthologized several times, notably by the art book publishing house Taschen, which published all issues of the series as The Complete Kake Comics in 2008. [19] The majority of the original artwork for Kake has been recovered by the Tom of Finland Foundation, and is preserved in the organization's archive. [12] List of issues [ edit ] Tags: #TOMs100, Brontez Purnell, Cassils, Catherine Opie, Elmgreen & Dragset, John Chiaverina, John Waters, Richard Hawkins, Simon Haas, The New York Times, The New York Times Style Magazine, Tom Bianchi