Tom of Finland: The Complete Kake Comics

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There is considerable argument over whether his depiction of "supermen" (male characters with huge sexual organs and muscles) is facile and distasteful, or whether there is a deeper complexity in the work which plays with and subverts those stereotypes. For example, some critics have noted instances of apparent tenderness between traditionally tough, masculine characters, or playful smiles in sado-masochistic scenes. [ citation needed] Filmmaker Wes Hurley credits Tom of Finland as an influence in his work, including his short Peter and the Wolf and his cult comedy musical Waxie Moon in Fallen Jewel. [43] Tom of Finland to appear on stamps in September". Itella Posti. 13 April 2014. Archived from the original on 15 April 2014 . Retrieved 17 April 2014. Let’s Go Camping with Tom of Finland is presented by The Lakes International Comic Art Festival and Cross Lane Projects in association with Tom of Finland Foundation.

Tom of Finland. The Complete Kake Comics - New Mags Tom of Finland. The Complete Kake Comics - New Mags

In 1999, an exhibition took place at the Institut Culturel Finlandais ( Finnish Cultural Centre) in Paris. Hooven, F. Valentine (1993). Tom of Finland: His Life and Times. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-09325-X. In my drawings I have no political statements to make, no ideology. I am thinking only about the picture itself. The whole Nazi philosophy, the racism and all that, is hateful to me, but of course I drew them anyway—they had the sexiest uniforms! When we curated the Nordic Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009, we installed a whole wall with Tom of Finland drawings. Even at that time his art was considered controversial. It’s funny to think that only a few years later Tom of Finland’s drawings appeared on national stamps and on bedsheets and cushion covers from the traditional Finnish textile company Finlayson, founded in 1820. Cassils, Los Angeles-based performance artist Laaksonen was born on 8 May 1920 and raised by a middle-class family in Kaarina, a town in southwestern Finland, near the city of Turku. [3] Both of his parents Suoma and Edwin Laaksonen were schoolteachers at the grammar school that served Kaarina. The family lived in the school building's attached living quarters. [4]Kake has been described by Susanna Paasonen as Laaksonen's "most iconic character," [20] and by Hooven as "the gay world’s most familiar pin-up icon." [1] Editor Dian Hanson describes Kake as "a sort of Johnny Appleseed traveling the world on his motorcycle spreading the seeds of liberated, mutually satisfying, ecstatically explicit gay sex." [2] Hanson argues that the series was an expression of Laaksonen's desire to depict sex between men that was freed from internalized homophobia – Laaksonen himself stated that his goal for his art was to draw "proud men who were happy having sex" [2] – noting how characters in Kake "break the affection barrier" by kissing and caressing each other in addition to performing sexual acts, and that Laaksonen depicts Kake assuming both active and passive roles during sex. [12]

Tom of Finland - 100 Years - Viewing Room - David Kordansky Tom of Finland - 100 Years - Viewing Room - David Kordansky

Tom’s comics have long had a special place within the LGBTQ community and I believe, now more than ever, it is vital that his work is shown; as Julie Tait, Director of The Lakes International Comic Art Festival has it: this comic work offers an essential perspective on queer culture at a critical point in its history. In 2020, as part of the 100th birthday celebrations, "Tom of Finland: Love and Liberation" at London's House of Illustration showed 40 originals with ephemera emphasizing fashion as an aspect of his work. This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sourcesin this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( June 2023) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) a b Slade, Joseph W.: Pornography and Sexual Representation: A Reference Guide, Volume 2. Pp. 545–546. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001. ISBN 0-313-27568-8 New York's Museum of Modern Art has acquired several examples of Laaksonen's artwork for its permanent collection. [35] In 2006, MoMA in New York accepted five Tom of Finland drawings as part of a much larger gift from The Judith Rothschild Foundation. The trustee of The Judith Rothschild Foundation, Harvey S. Shipley Miller, said, "Tom of Finland is one of the five most influential artists of the twentieth century. As an artist he was superb, as an influence he was transcendent." [36] Hudson, of Feature Inc., New York, placed Tom of Finland's work in the collections of Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art and Art Institute of Chicago. His work is also in the public Collections of: The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, USA; Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art; Turku, Finland; University of California Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley (California), USA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA; Kiasma, Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA; and Tom of Finland Foundation, Los Angeles, USA.Suomen sarjakuvaseura ry - 1990: Touko Laaksonen - Tom of Finland". The Finnish Comics Society (in Finnish) . Retrieved 19 January 2019.