HELSINKI (AP) — A new exhibn showg the works of Too Laaksonen, better known by his psdonym Tom of Fland, adds a personal touch to the late Fnish artist whose homoerotic drawgs of mcular men gaed a followg the gay muny om the 1950s.
Contents:
- LEGENDARY QUEER ARTIST TOM OF FLAND’S HOE NURTUR GAY ARTISTS
- 'UNASHAMEDLY GAY': TOM OF FLAND'S BULGG BEEFKE DRAWGS UNVEILED LONDON
- NEW TOM OF FLAND SKETCHBOOK GO EP TO THE GAY ARTIST’S PROCS
- TOM OF FLAND EXHIB CELEBRAT NORDIC COUNTRY'S GAY IN
LEGENDARY QUEER ARTIST TOM OF FLAND’S HOE NURTUR GAY ARTISTS
100 Hero: Tom of Fland. The gay man who created art that helped shape queer inty and sire. * tom gay artist *
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 man who created art that helped shape queer inty and sire.
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. 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
Tom of Fland, perhaps the most inic creator of erotic gay art, unrstood his role as a liberator. His imag of men unleashg their ept fantasi have provid an outlet for self-intifitn and tablished a visual inography of eroticism. * tom gay artist *
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.
At the vatn of Durk Dehner, a gay bsman, film director and publisher.
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.
NEW TOM OF FLAND SKETCHBOOK GO EP TO THE GAY ARTIST’S PROCS
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. ‘Tom Holland gay sex ma me google The Crowd Room real quick,’ another trigued viewer shared. ‘Oh no I got my parents to The Crowd Room and I’ve jt learned that one of my theori is rrect and we will ed be seeg Tom Holland a gay sex scene.
Tom of Fland’s art beme an inic part of the gay visual vobulary durg s time. Homosexualy was illegal Fland until 1971.
“Tom of Fland’s bodi are gog to be somethg that really also om the postwar era, the need to bat the ia of effemacy of homosexualy, ” says Dr.
TOM OF FLAND EXHIB CELEBRAT NORDIC COUNTRY'S GAY IN
The ia of the homosexual before the 1950s was only a highly effemate one. While some gay men were (and rema) proudly effemate, others wanted to be gay on their own terms, whout havg their inty prcribed to them. In dog so, he created a visual language for gay men that had prevly been publicly unavailable to them, one where s actors were permted to be mascule, happy and sexually domant.
“It then creat a siar kd of gatekeepg on the straight male that was hherto enclosed on the gay male. ” It also creat the possibily of straight men aspirg to what Tom of Fland shows as homosexual prentatn.