Tom of Finland

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Tom of Finland

Tom of Finland (actually Touko Valio Laaksonen ; born May 8, 1920 in Kaarina , Finland , † November 7, 1991 in Helsinki ) was a Finnish artist. He was best known for his homoerotic illustrations.

Life

Laaksonen drew pictures of “real men” from an early age. At the age of 19 he moved to the Finnish capital Helsinki. He attended the art college there and studied advertising graphics. During the war he made his first experiences with his homosexuality . On the darkened nights he met other men in the streets of the capital, including soldiers of the German Wehrmacht in their uniforms. Stimulated by his experiences, he began to make homoerotic drawings . After his military service, Laaksonen began to work in the advertising industry, but continued to devote his free time to the passion of drawing his erotic fantasies on paper. He avoided the gay scene that was flourishing at the time, as he almost only met feminine men here , the type of homosexual he did not like.

Friends recommended that he send his drawings to a muscle man magazine in the United States called Physique Pictorial . His work was published in 1957 under the pseudonym Tom of Finland and was an instant hit in the bodybuilding scene.

Numerous book illustrations and anthologies followed . Museums and galleries around the world have been interested in his work since 1973 .

In 1979 Laaksonen founded the Tom of Finland Company with his friend Durk Dehner . Five years later, the art was Foundation Tom of Finland Foundation founded a non-profit company to promote erotic art .

In 1991 the documentary Daddy and the Muscle Academy - The Art, Life, and Times of Tom of Finland dealt with himself . In the same year Tom of Finland died of complications from cancer.

In 2008, the French fragrance company Etat Libre d'Orange launched a collector's collection of a Tom of Finland fragrance in collaboration with the Tom of Finland Foundation.

At the 2009 Venice Biennale , the Scandinavian artists Elmgreen & Dragset, curators of the Nordic pavilion, also exhibited works by Tom of Finland. For the first time, these were made available to a broad audience. Among other things, his graphic copy of Michelangelo's David was shown with a significantly enlarged penis .

In September 2014, the Finnish Post issued a series of special stamps in his honor. One of these three individual stamps, graphically designed by Timo Berry, shows a naked man leaning against the crotch of a muscular policeman. The stamp was sold in 178 countries within a few days and is already considered the most requested Finnish postage stamp. The St. Petersburg politician Vitaly Milonov , who helped draft the Russian anti-gay law , saw the stamp and discovered that it violated national laws. He demanded that the Russian Post should return all items with the special postage stamps to the sender. He called on the Finns “to refrain from using these stamps when letters are sent to Russia”. The Finnish Post is happy about this kind of marketing and the great demand for the small works of art. It was possible to "print stamps in line with our zeitgeist".

In 2017 the film adaptation of his life entitled Tom of Finland (Director: Dome Karukoski ) was released.

literature

  • Dian Hanson (Ed.): Tom of Finland XXL: Complete Works. Taschen Verlag, Cologne / Los Angeles 2009, ISBN 978-3-8228-2607-2 .
  • Dian Hanson (Ed.): Tom of Finland: The Comic Collection (5 volumes). Taschen Verlag, Cologne / London 2005, ISBN 3-8228-3849-7 .
  • Mischa Ramakers: Dirty Pictures: Tom of Finland, Masculinity and Homosexuality. Saint Martins Press, New York 2001, ISBN 0-312-27694-X .
  • Mischa Ramakers (Ed.): Tom of Finland: The Art of Pleasure. Taschen Verlag, Cologne / London 1998, ISBN 3-8228-8598-3 .
  • F. Valentine Hooven: Tom of Finland: His Life and Times. Saint Martins Press, New York 1993, ISBN 0-312-09325-X .
  • F. Valentine Hooven III: Tom Of Finland - Life and Work of a Gay Hero. Bruno Gmünder Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86787-166-2 .

Documentation

  • Ilppo Pohjola (author), Kari Paljakka and Alvaro Pardo (producers): Daddy and the Muscle Academy: Tom of Finland , Filmitakomo & YLE, Finland, 1991, length approx. 58 minutes

See also

Web links

Commons : Tom of Finland  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Posti.fi: Tom of Finland saa syyskuussa omat postimerkit ( Memento of the original from April 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Finnish; translated: Tom of Finland will get its own stamps in September ) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.posti.fi
  2. ↑ Queer.de: Schwule Briefmarken
  3. ↑ Maike Schultz: Gay postage stamp threatens Russia. In: Berliner Zeitung , Oct. 24, 2014, p. 1.
personal data
SURNAME Tom of Finland
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Laaksonen, Touko (real name); Laaksonen, Touko Valio (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Finnish artist
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Kaarina , Finland
DATE OF DEATH November 7, 1991
Place of death Helsinki , Finland