After a bpic about the famo gay Fnish artist premiered this weekend, a look at why his art still ptivat the world.
Contents:
- TOM OF FLAND’S HYPERMASCULE GAY IMAG ‘THE PLEASURE OF PLAY’
- INTERVIEW-THROUGH HOMOEROTIC ART, TOM OF FLAND PAVED WAY FOR TODAY'S GAY PRI
- "GAY"/ FE ART PRTS ▼
- TOM OF FLAND EXHIB CELEBRAT NORDIC UNTRY’S GAY IN
TOM OF FLAND’S HYPERMASCULE GAY IMAG ‘THE PLEASURE OF PLAY’
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. * finland gay art *
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.
Tom of Fland’s art beme an inic part of the gay visual vobulary durg s time.
Homosexualy was illegal Fland until 1971.
INTERVIEW-THROUGH HOMOEROTIC ART, TOM OF FLAND PAVED WAY FOR TODAY'S GAY PRI
100 Hero: Tom of Fland. The gay man who created art that helped shape queer inty and sire. * finland gay art *
“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. 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.
"GAY"/ FE ART PRTS ▼
* finland gay art *
” It also creat the possibily of straight men aspirg to what Tom of Fland shows as homosexual prentatn. “He creat this proxy gay universe … a gay Olymp. Tom of Fland had ma his way to the Amerin visual market 1957, wh drawgs and on the ver of Physique Pictorial, a homoerotic magaze that displayed nu bodybuilrs unr the guise of athletic molg to avoid obsceny implitns.
The “Tom of Fland” look — boots, leather, mtach, tight jeans — beme vibrant the gay muny and eventually crossed over to the mastream via the artists spired. Tom of Fland, perhaps the most inic creator of erotic gay art, unrstood his role as a liberator. From a distance, then, he was keepg pace wh Amerin gay liberatn and cultural shifts.
TOM OF FLAND EXHIB CELEBRAT NORDIC UNTRY’S GAY IN
Available for viewg and acquisn: gay art drawgs, gay art patgs, and gay art photographs by ternatnally acclaimed artists. * finland gay art *
When he arrived California 1977, was no surprise that he was immediately embraced by a muny who viewed him as paragon of gay pri. The stereotype of a domant and submissive partner assumed of a both a male/female and gay relatnships was not one he subscribed to. 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.
My Gay Eye is a 400-page anthology that celebrat queer sexualy. * finland gay art *
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.
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.