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In spite of the depictions of rough sexual practices, there is something almost innocent and sweet about Tom of Finland’s drawings, like it’s all playacting. It seems absolutely devoid of the Protestant reservedness, darkness, angst and pietism that has otherwise affected the Nordic culture. Tom of Finland’s art is unabashedly gay and celebratory of a subculture and sexual rituals that were considered perverse when his drawings first appeared in public. “CalArts was steeped within the dogma of conceptual art, and Tom, of course, was anything but that,” the gallerist David Kordansky, who represents Tom of Finland’s work through the foundation, says.Įlmgreen & Dragset, Berlin-based artist duo In his introduction, Kelley called Tom of Finland “an incredible inspiration in my work.” In context, it was a bold statement. In 1985, the artist Mike Kelley brought Tom of Finland to CalArts, the legendary Southern California art school, to give a talk.
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Dehner facilitated the show, and Mapplethorpe’s enthusiasm helped the artist land an exhibition at Robert Samuel Gallery in New York two years later.
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Mapplethorpe attended Laaksonen’s debut San Francisco exhibition at the pioneering queer art gallery Fey-Way Studios. Mapplethorpe would become a crucial link in exposing Laaksonen’s work to the contemporary art world. In the early 1960s, the pioneering, boundary-pushing gay artist Robert Mapplethorpe, according to Patti Smith, discovered Tom of Finland’s work in a used bookstall in Times Square. Throughout this timeline, Tom of Finland has remained a quintessential artist’s artist. Even so, many of Laaksonen’s later, more explicit drawings retained the winking affability seen in his more formative work. Early pieces published under the Tom of Finland moniker were more suggestive than explicit, but the artist’s work evolved with the loosening of both legal and social constraints. This early attraction was amplified during a stint in the Finnish military, in which Laaksonen saw action in Finland’s 1941 Continuation War against the U.S.S.R., which landed his country on the wrong side of World War II history until it switched sides late in 1944, and later through the emergent biker subculture, inspired by Marlon Brando in the 1953 film “The Wild One.” (It should be noted that though the uniforms of the German military were an influence on the artist, Laaksonen was decidedly anti-racist.)Īn initially secretive postwar art practice begun while the artist was working a day job at an advertising agency developed into a career, spurred on by a successful submission, in 1956, to Mizer’s magazine, Physique Pictorial, which had to be branded as a fitness magazine as a cover, though that didn’t always work (Mizer was charged with obscenity in 1954). From a young age, he took an interest in leather and uniforms - particularly those of local loggers and farmers - which would become his primary stylistic touchstone: Sailors flex and embrace in his work, and bikers touch bulges. But the artist’s work has had a long road to wider acceptance.