New Tom of Fland Sketchbook Go Deep Into the Gay Artist's Procs

Contents:

• THERE'S A GAY PORNO STASHED IN YOUR WARDROBE: THE HISTORY BEHD PRI 2020'S BT COLLAB
• TOM OF FLAND EXHIB CELEBRAT NORDIC UNTRY’S GAY IN

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

Elska, the up-and-g seri of gay photography and culture bookaz, has ma s latt edn Helski, pal of Fland and world's northernmost metropolis. Known for s hont portrayal of diverse gay, queer, and allied men, a newt edn Elska sh a light on the people of what is perhaps the most unr-disvered Nordic pal. Durg our Helski gay walk wh Yoo-hoo!

Tour is part of of the We Speak Gay Communy that was found by Hannu Meda, a pneer LGBTQ+ Tourism Fland.

PHOTO BY BARRY HOYFland Celebrat Country’s Gay In wh New ExhibJt last month, the Mm of Contemporary Art Kiasma regnized the artist, Too Laaksonen, better known as Tom of Fland, for the first time through a bold exhibn highlightg his illtratns.

TOM OF FLAND EXHIB CELEBRAT NORDIC UNTRY’S GAY IN

In a time when homosexualy was crimalized and fetishism stigmatized as a disease, his pictns of joyful gay men embracg their sexualy were nothg short of groundbreakg.

I hontly wasn’t too faiar wh the artist before this exhib but I am faiar wh his work even as a gay closeted Asian growg up Canada. Bold Journey shows many piec that beme the fabric of gay culture. 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.

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. 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 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. 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.