Tom off Finland

Tom off Finland is the pseudonym of Touko Laaksonen (Kaarina, Finland, May 8th 1920 - November 7th 1991). It was a Dessinateur and painter Finnish homosexual famous in the gay world for its fantasmatic representations and fetishistic S of men. It durably influenced imaginary the gay.

Biography

At the nineteen years age, Laaksonen left its birthplace of Kaarina to follow studies of art to Helsinki. It that it started to outline its first drawings Homoérotique S, is inspired there by images of Finnish workers whom it collected since his youth. Finland engaged however in the Guerre of winter with the the USSR, then in the Second world war, and Touko was enlisted in the Finnish army. After the war, Laaksonen returned to the civil life and worked in advertizing industry, continuing to draw at side. In 1957, it sent some of its drawings homoerotic to the American magazine Physique Pictorial , published under the pseudonym of " Tom off Finland" to prevent that one recognizes it in his country.

The work of Laaksonen drew the attention of the gay community quickly as a whole and, towards 1973, it published at the same time books of erotic Cartoon and infiltrated the world of Article " Tom" was especially known for its productions centered on male prototypes such as the Bûcheron S, the Policier S with Moto, the marine S, the business men, the Motard S, and the men equipped with Cuir (which point out the played parts in an ironic way by The Village People). Its series of the most important cartoon, the data bases " Kake ", abound in its archetypal characters.

Exposures of the work of Laaksonen started in the Années 1970 and in 1973, it full-time gave up its work at the office of Helsinki of the international advertizing company McCann-Erickson. " Since then, I lived out of jean and of my dessins" , thus it described the transition in its lifestyle which took place at that time.

In 1979, Laaksonen founded the Company " Tom off Finland" " to gather and market its work. This company always exists and evolved/moved in the form of a foundation with nonlucrative goal devoted to the collection, the conservation and the exposure of the homoerotic works of art. At the end of the Years 1990, the company presented a line of mode inspired by works of " Tom" , covering a large range of styles, in addition to the look wind-breakers and torn jeans of its drawings. This line of clothing balances the Homoérotisme origin with the culture general public of the mode and their processions take place at the same time as those of the other designers houses.

Before its death, " Tom" was the subject of documentary, Daddy and the Muscle Academy - The Art, Life, and Times off Tom off Finland .

Polemic and artistic value

Of alive sound, and after, the work of Laaksonen caused the admiration or the contempt of the various clans of the artistic community. Laaksonen maintained a friendship with the gay photographer Robert Mapplethorpe whose work developing a sadomasochistic iconography and Fétichiste was also an object of scandal.

A discussed part of its work consists of drawings érotisant of the men equipped in uniform Nazi. Representing only one small portion on her work and old time, their side " sensible" drew aside from the most recent Anthologie S of its work. Laaksonen repudiated this work later and endeavoured to dissociate its person and her work of fascistic ideologies or racist. Tom also represented a great number of black men in his drawings, without implying the least racial or political message in the context where they were published.

The opinions of the art critics were varied about the contribution of Laaksonen. Its very detailed technique was worth the title of " to him; Master of the crayon" , whereas a critic of the newspaper Dutch Het Parool described its work like “illustrations stripped of expressivity”.

There is a polemic aiming at determining if its portraits of " superhommes" (muscular and hyper members) are easy and without taste or if a major complexity rests in its work, playing of these stereotypes and subverting them.

In the latter case, a rather large audience agrees to admire its work on a purely utility basis, such as described Rob Meyer, owner of a store S/M and of an art gallery to Amsterdam, “They are not works of conservation, but of masturbation”.

Cultural impact and posterity

One can advance that the work of Laaksonen revived and marketed a Sous-culture S/M which emerged after the Second world war and which reached its apogee at the end of the Années 1970 and at the beginning of the Années 1980, before the appearance of the AIDS in the gay community .

The pace, the looks, the accessories adopted by a great number of gays during this period seems to derive directly from its work (for example, Glenn Hughes of Village People). Although the prevalence of this look declined since the middle of the years 1980, the gay publications, the bars, nightclubs, and the online sites which milked with this erotic matter continue to refer to it in a considerable way.

The combination Moustache - Wind-breaker - Casquette of Cuir was essential in the popular culture of the Western world like a visual Stéréotype of the Homosexuels. In 1999, the Cultural Institut Finnish of Paris devoted an exposure to him. In 2004, the Musée of Modern art of New York inserted several examples of the art of Tom in his permanent collection.

With reading

Valentine F. Hooven III, Tom off Finland, His Life and Time , NR there, St Martin' S Near, 1993.
Collective, Tom off Finland, the Art off Pleasure , Cologne, Taschen, 1998.
Micha Ramakers, Dirty Pictures: Tom off Finland, Masculinity, and Homosexuality , NR there, St Martin' S Near, 2000.
Tom off Finland: The Comic Collection , volume 1-5, Cologne, Taschen, 2005.
Series Kake

External bond

Tom off Finland Foundation

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