Through homoerotic art, Tom of Fland paved way for today's gay pri | Rters

Contents:

• THROUGH HOMOEROTIC ART, TOM OF FLAND PAVED WAY FOR TODAY'S GAY PRI
• THE GAY FIGURE ARTISTS ARE REIMAGG THE MALE GAZE
• NEW TOM OF FLAND SKETCHBOOK GO EP TO THE GAY ARTIST’S PROCS
• 'UNASHAMEDLY GAY': TOM OF FLAND'S BULGG BEEFKE DRAWGS UNVEILED LONDON
• TOM HOLLAND’S GAY SEX SCENE THE CROWD ROOM DEFEND BY FANS
• TOM OF FLAND’S HYPERMASCULE GAY IMAG ‘THE PLEASURE OF PLAY’
• THROUGH HOMOEROTIC ART, TOM OF FLAND PAVED WAY FOR TODAY’S GAY PRI
• THERE'S A GAY PORNO STASHED IN YOUR WARDROBE: THE HISTORY BEHD PRI 2020'S BT COLLAB
• INTERVIEW-THROUGH HOMOEROTIC ART, TOM OF FLAND PAVED WAY FOR TODAY'S GAY PRI
• TOM OF FLAND EXHIB CELEBRAT NORDIC COUNTRY'S GAY IN

THROUGH HOMOEROTIC ART, TOM OF FLAND PAVED WAY FOR TODAY'S GAY PRI

Eded by thor, art aler, and llector Juerg Jud and German art cric and wrer Pay Matthis Karstens jt time for Pri, the book has the look and feel of a Too Laaksonen (1920-1991), Tom revolutnized not jt the pictn of gay men wh his highly stylized and hypersexualized imagery but also the way they were perceived society and how they perceived themselv.

THE GAY FIGURE ARTISTS ARE REIMAGG THE MALE GAZE

KENDAL, England (Thomson Rters Foundatn) - Inic gay artist Tom of Fland was an early fighter for LGBT+ rights, preparg a generatn of gay men the 1940s and ‘50s to bee activists who would fight for equaly a later, the founr of the illtrator’s foundatn said on PHOTO: The rabow flag, monly known as the gay pri flag or LGBT pri flag, is seen durg the first Gay Pri para Skopje, North Macedonia June 29, 2019.

REUTERS/Ognen TeofilovskiTom’s imag of burly, leather-clad motached mcle men marked a “radil shift” om the then-prevailg ia of gay men as limp-wristed fops hidg the shadows, said Durk Dehner, who set up the Tom of Fland Foundatn wh the artist 1984. “He was the forenner of gettg prepared to be gay liberatnists, ” Dehner told the Thomson Rters Foundatn on Thursday of the artist whose real name was Too Laaksonen. Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, also known for the graphilly homoerotic nature of his work, was an early supporter.

”SPIRITUAL MATTERSThe language of transcenntal medatn still rms much of Dehner’s speech, wh talk movg om sex and the leather athetic to more spirual matters and personal, who worked as a male mol, was photographed by star photographer Bce Weber and won accs to “the sort of ele gays” 1970s and ‘80s New York. ”Tom of Fland’s work, often pictg explic gay sex, has not been whout ntroversy over the years, notably over his e of Nazi imagery and Cross Lane Projects, which curated the exhibn wh the foundatn as part of the Lak Internatnal Comic Art Ftival, said they had received jt one plat sce the late September, Tom’s work is highly sought after, gracg the walls of New York’s Mm of Morn Art and the Mm of Contemporary Art the Fnish pal, Dehner supports up-and-g LGBT+ artists through the foundatn, offerg assistance and even acmodatn at Tom’s Hoe Los Angel, where the artist lived and worked alongsi a new generatn seeks out his work, Dehner said Tom’s legacy as an artist is assured. Tom of Fland is the psdonym of artist Too Laaksonen – an erotic illtrator om of Fland’s work as an artist was stmental shapg 20th-century gay culture – his impact is still beg felt today.

NEW TOM OF FLAND SKETCHBOOK GO EP TO THE GAY ARTIST’S PROCS

Laaksonen viewed his homosexualy as a non-issue, and wanted to normalise for everyone else his muny at a time when beg gay was lerally a crime. “In those days, a gay man was ma to feel nothg but shame about his feelgs and his sexualy.

'UNASHAMEDLY GAY': TOM OF FLAND'S BULGG BEEFKE DRAWGS UNVEILED LONDON

I wanted my drawgs to unteract that, to show gay men beg happy and posive about who they were…” Tom explaed, before he died 1991 om an emphysema-duced stroke.

”The men drawn by Tom of Fland were pretty much the first sex-posive morn art figur pictg gay men – strappg beefk, wh bulgg mcl, big boots, a visor hat and leather, or a mixture of civilian cloth uniforms – everythg about them is big and unapologetilly 1973, Laaksonen had given up his job advertisg so that he uld vote himself to his art landmark 1962 Supreme Court se MANual Enterpris, Inc.

In his heroic homoerotic drawgs – starrg hyper-mascule hunks, clad uniforms or leather gear, all bulgg mcl and members – he fearlsly nonted a system that nied eedom, legaly, and basic rights to the gay muny. Among the photographs are portras of iends and partners – cludg those Tom of Fland and Robert Mapplethorpe took of each other – that were nfed to his home stud and darkroom for years, wh much of the rrponnce between the artist and his subjects stroyed due to the illegaly of homosexualy at the time.

TOM HOLLAND’S GAY SEX SCENE THE CROWD ROOM DEFEND BY FANS

Tom of Fland Permanent Collectn(Image cred: Marko MacPherson)‘Beg aware of what society had nied homosexuals, Tom went about creatg the archetype of mascule homosexuals who participate eely together sex – a cree om Nature herself, says Durk Dehner, print and -founr of the Tom of Fland Foundatn, created 1984.

TOM OF FLAND’S HYPERMASCULE GAY IMAG ‘THE PLEASURE OF PLAY’

The masterful renrgs of virile men engrossed acts of homoerotic sire n be approached along several terpretative l—art historil, social, technil—but each of them pots to the revolutnary nature of his project.

A master draftsman, whose passn for both his medium and his subject matter enabled him to bee a powerful cultural force, Tom gave form to an imagative universe that turn helped fuel real-world liberatn movements and enabled gay men to accs their strength new ways. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTWorkg largely outsi the gallery system, a group of illtrators is revivg the disciple and refg how queer bodi are reprented MacConnell, “Ernie” 2014, waterlor and pen on paperLAST FALL, IN a ty apartment downtown New York, a 30-year-old gay physique mol named Matthew Williams stood naked agast a whe backdrop ont of the gay artist John MacConnell.

THROUGH HOMOEROTIC ART, TOM OF FLAND PAVED WAY FOR TODAY’S GAY PRI

Over the next 2, 000 years, pturg the naked male form beme an sential artistic skill, one that reached s apotheosis Wtern culture durg the Italian Renaissance, when homosexual sire was subtly exprsed Donatello’s bronze “David” (cir 1440) and Caravagg’s patg “The Micians” (1597), where the tradnal female me is replaced wh a band of boys, partially robed togas, referencg a Greek and Roman perd which homoeroti was a part of society. Classics profsor Andrew Lear, 59, who now ns Osr Wil Tours, a pany that offers excursns foced on implicly gay art and history major while some old masters fetishized the male body barely d ways, the ia of an openly queer artist exprsg his sir om a queer perspective was only born the last century.

Ined, cricism of works like Cadm’s durg an era which homosexualy was still forbidn phed many of the artists to the unrground, om where they’re still beg unearthed today. (It’s perhaps not cintal that Alan Hollghurst’s latt novel, “The Sparsholt Affair, ” a gay retellg of Bra the 20th century, clus a 1940s-era artist tryg to pursue a classmate at Oxford by drawg his figure. ) Frato, “Tangere” 2016, lored pencil on paper, urty of the artist and Antoe Levi, Paris; Jordan Mejias, “Dare Me, ” 2017, monochromatic waterlor on paper, om the book “Of Art and Men” (Photograph: Hans-Ge Pospischil) © Jordan MejiasIN THE YEARS after Cadm, other gay perspectiv on the male body found their way to visual culture, though they’ve typilly been nsired taboo or hypersexual.

And spe the “queer enlightenment” of the 1970s and ’80s, when Robert Mapplethorpe, the photographer Rotimi Fani-Kayo and others brought man-on-man sex to the mm, there rema few celebratory imag of openly gay men Wtern visual art. Williams’s afternoon ssn wh MacConnell, fact, is part of a recent revival of male figure drawg among ntemporary gay artists — cludg Kou Shou, Mart Bedolla and Stephen McDermott — who all specialize stripped-down reprentatns of largely young whe men.

THERE'S A GAY PORNO STASHED IN YOUR WARDROBE: THE HISTORY BEHD PRI 2020'S BT COLLAB

MacConnell and Williams met 2016 at the artist Mark Beard’s drawg salon, which now attracts a rotatg st of about 30 gay artists. Outled his signature blue pen, ’s a tribute to the sorts of mundane gay moments that are rarely celebrated art or popular culture.

INTERVIEW-THROUGH HOMOEROTIC ART, TOM OF FLAND PAVED WAY FOR TODAY'S GAY PRI

Gay figure artists are followg the homoerotic tradn tablished by Mizer, Fland and the artist Tom Bianchi, whose photographic nus have seen a renaissance after he published “Fire Island P, Polaroids 1975-1983” 2013. ” In “On Send Thought” (2016), the ster’s mcular curv suggt early Roman statuary while ializg gayns the tradn of Cadm’s fabulist etchg “Y.

In this, Frato and the other ntemporary gay figure artists share a philosophy, spe their different athetics: They’re all mted to reflectg the mostly unseen terr liv of the men they admire, and to celebratg a diverse set of subjects who, taken together, stand opposn to a nonil history of art that has long ignored an openly gay view of the male body. Tom revolutnized not jt the pictn of gay men wh his highly stylized and hypersexualized imagery but also the way they were perceived society and how they perceived themselv. Tom is known for his highly homoerotic pictns of hyper-mascule men cked out biker leather gear who spired and aroed a generatn of gay men wh their bulgg mcl and juttg jawl.

” The undisvered, unashamedly gay imag clu some Matisse-spired piec datg om 1978 and a work pictg an terracial uple that uld not be shown the US. Fans of Brish actor Tom Holland have e to his fense after some social media ers were seemgly upset that the latt episo of his Apple TV+ seri The Crowd Room featured gay the scene, Holland’s character go to a club wh heavy black eyeler and all black. ”A lot of other ers, however, seemed very nfed over the backlash, pecially sce Spir-Man actors Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield have also played gay person wrote, “Watchg agile cishet men have breakdowns over the reason Tom Holland is trendg is sweet we to me.

TOM OF FLAND EXHIB CELEBRAT NORDIC COUNTRY'S GAY IN

”“The fact that a sgle scene on an Apple Pl show featurg Tom Holland has brought out so much homophobia om the stupist people is... Art & Dign|Tom of Fland’s Hypermascule Gay Imag ‘The Pleasure of Play’ ADVERTISEMENTArt of Fland Foundatn, Permanent CollectnJuly 23, 2015For several s, begng the 1950s, Too Laaksonen, a rporate advertisg signer based Helski, moonlighted as a pornographic draftsman named Tom of Fland. The actn uld get rough, but the drawg was always smooth — fe-led, subtly shad — and the fac of the participants almost variably work, wily circulated prted formats, has been exhibed sporadilly New York galleri, but never the quanty, or wh the historil perspective, afford by the current two-se Artists Space show, spl between a survey of almost 200 drawgs at 38 Greene Street and a display of supplementary material (mostly llag) at 55 Walker Laaksonen, who died 1991, was forthright about his reasons for makg his work: In addn to givg exprsn to his personal fantasi, he wanted to produce an image of gay men that unteracted the atmosphere of opprsn and the stereotyp of effemacy he had grown up wh.

And the work looks tertgly very notn that there uld, or should, be a gay male ial feels old.

Skira has published a volume dited to the drawgs of the master of homoerotic art Tom of Fland who ma the gay leather athetic inic, transformg to a pop language.