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.
Contents:
TOM OF FLAND EXHIB CELEBRAT NORDIC UNTRY’S GAY IN
100 Hero: Tom of Fland. The gay man who created art that helped shape queer inty and sire. * gay tom of finland *
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. In 2013, the artist’s work was clud a two-person exhibn wh the gay erotic art trailblazer — and, as happens, the origator of Laaksonen’s famo psdonym — Bob Mizer at the Mm of Contemporary Art, Los Angel.
Even Laaksonen’s home untry and namake, which homosexualy was crimalized until 1971, has e around to the artist’s importance: In 2014, ma a seri of stamps honorg Tom of Fland, and a succsful 2017 bpic was produced the by Brian Forrt. In the early 1960s, the pneerg, boundary-phg gay artist Robert Mapplethorpe, acrdg to Patti Smh, disvered Tom of Fland’s work a ed bookstall Tim Square.
”T talked to a wi range of artists about Tom of Fland’s fluence for what would have been his 100th by Anrs Sune Berg Elmgreen & Dragset, Berl-based artist duoTom of Fland’s art is unabashedly gay and celebratory of a subculture and sexual ruals that were nsired perverse when his drawgs first appeared public. And I thk, siarly, perhaps when Tom of Fland was fg this inic style, he really took ownership over his fn of what was to be a homosexual, which was perhaps, at that time, a term that was viewed as weak or rogatory. Tom of Fland’s ft pencil work and the immediate eroticism are enough to make any young gay boy a quick fan, but after a of lookg at his drawgs, I unrstand that his work transcends pornography and occupi a space of queer spirualy.