Tom of Finland: The Complete Kake Comics

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Prono, Luca: Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Popular Culture. p. 258. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008. ISBN 978-0-313-33599-0 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! Hidden underground for hundreds of years, depictions of sex, love, and erotica in Andean pre-Columbian art are now proudly displayed in the Erotic... 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. Nipa ja Touko Dortmundissa" (in Finnish). Finnish Postal Museum [ fi]. Archived from the original on 30 June 2016 . Retrieved 27 January 2023. Mäkinen menehtyi kurkunpääsyöpään heinäkuussa 1981

Tom of Finland - Pen and Ink 1965 – 1989 - Exhibitions Tom of Finland - Pen and Ink 1965 – 1989 - Exhibitions

In 1985, the artist Mike Kelley brought Tom of Finland to CalArts, the legendary Southern California art school, to give a talk. In his introduction, Kelley called Tom of Finland “an incredible inspiration in my work.” In context, it was a bold statement. “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. Bob Mizer and Tom of Finland", Kate Wolf, Artforum International Magazine (Online), 21 November 2013 Ramakers, Mischa. Dirty Pictures: Tom of Finland, Masculinity and Homosexuality. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2001. ISBN 0-312-20526-0To learn more about Tom of Finland, please view this lecturehe delivered at CalArts in 1985 (at the invitation of Mike Kelley), as well as these articles from Artforum.com, Art in America, DazedDigital.com, Drummer, The Guardian, and Vice.com. We love art history and writing about it. Your support helps us to sustain DailyArt Magazine and keep it running. Ilppo Pohjola (author): Kari Paljakka and Alvaro Pardo (producers): Daddy and the Muscle Academy: Tom of Finland. Filmitakomo & YLE, Finland 1991. (Duration of Feature: 58 Minutes. Also features frames of Laaksonen's graphic art.)

tom-of-finland-the-complete-kake-comics-dian-hanson-editor

Millstein, Seth (15 April 2014). "Finland's Homoerotic Postage Stamps Are Pretty Bold". Bustle . Retrieved 19 August 2015. World's first homoerotic stamps produced in Finland". BBC News. 17 April 2014 . Retrieved 19 August 2015. 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] In either case, there remains a large constituency who admire the work on a purely utilitarian basis; as described by Rob Meijer, owner of a leathershop and art gallery in Amsterdam, "These works are not conversation pieces, they're masturbation pieces." [ citation needed] David Kordansky Gallery is pleased to announce Tom of Finland: Pen and Ink 1965 – 1989, an exhibition of drawings in a range of media, including pencil, pen, ink, marker, and gouache. Together, these pictures demonstrate the breadth of graphic production key to Tom of Finland’s creative output throughout his lifetime. Curated in close collaboration with Tom of Finland Foundation, the exhibition opens on March 20 and will be on view through May 1, 2021.

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] 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)

Kake, vol 1, The Intruder VIII by Tom of Finland on artnet

Löfström, Jan (1998), "Scandinavian homosexualities: essays on gay and lesbian studies", Journal of homosexuality, Routledge, vol.35, no.3–4, pp.189–206, ISBN 0-7890-0508-5 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 Comic Collection. Vol. 1–5. Dian Hanson, ed. London: Taschen, 2005. ISBN 978-3-8228-3849-5 In 2011 there was a large retrospective exhibition of Laaksonen's artwork in Turku, Finland. The exhibition was one of the official events in Turku's European Capital of Culture programme. [37] Miller, Jason (26 March 2013). "3 Questions with Wes Hurley |". Central-cinema.com. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016 . Retrieved 10 December 2016.

100 Years

Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen, 1920–1991) is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century’s most influential artists for his groundbreaking representation of the male figure. In his youth, Tom trained at an advertising school, but what he would come to call his “dirty drawings,” which he first began developing as a teenager, were the true focus of his attention, both during this formative period and throughout the entirety of his life. These masterful renderings of virile men engrossed in acts of homoerotic desire can be approached along several interpretative lines—art historical, social, technical—but each of them points to the revolutionary nature of his project. A master draftsman, whose passion for both his medium and his subject matter enabled him to become a powerful cultural force, Tom gave form to an imaginative universe that in turn helped fuel real-world liberation movements and enabled gay men to access their strength in new ways. Tom's drawings reaffirm the centrality of sexuality, joy, and the body in all areas of human endeavor. One simply cannot praise Homer’s peerless oeuvre enough. We all read Iliad and Odyssey several times, and surely, a considerable amount of us has...

Books by Tom of Finland (Author of The Complete Kake Comics)

In a certain way, there was always a position of separatism with the leather men compared to the leather dykes. Which is why I’m so interested in the influence that Tom of Finland had on [the Canadian artist and publisher] G. B. Jones. For the first time within G. B. Jones’s zines, in which she adopted the style of Tom of Finland, I was able to see my own community and my own self, versus the fantasies that many of us carried of being leather daddies. a b c Hooven, F. Valentine, III: Gay histories and cultures: an encyclopedia. Volume 2 of Encyclopedia of lesbian and gay histories and cultures. p. 884. George E. Haggerty, editor. Taylor & Francis, 2000. ISBN 0-8153-3354-4 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 It is a unique, free exhibition, open to those over 18, and part of the official Tom of Finland Centenary celebrations, supported by the Finnish Institute. ArtLyst is the exhibition media partner. Writing for Artforum, Kevin Killian said that seeing Tom of Finland originals "produces a strong respect for his nimble, witty creation". [30] Kate Wolf writes that "Tom of Finland helped pave the way to gay liberation". [31] Cultural impact and legacy [ edit ]Tom of Finland: The Art of Pleasure. Mischa Ramakers, ed. London: Taschen, 1998, ISBN 3-8228-8598-3 The defining traits of Kake's character are his friendly and easygoing personality, and his promiscuity. The character's affable disposition intentionally contrasts typical portrayals of leathermen in heterosexual culture as menacing or dangerous, while his frequent sexual encounters reflect the attitudes of the sexual liberation movement that emerged in the 1960s. [1] [2] Writer F. Valentine Hooven III notes that when the series focuses on subjects such as BDSM or rape fetishism, any sadistic acts performed by Kake are rendered as "innocent fun," and that the characters Kake performs these acts on are "welcome to do the same to him." [1] Laaksonen was diagnosed with emphysema in 1988. Eventually the disease and medication caused his hands to tremble, leading him to switch media from pencil to pastel. He died in 1991 of an emphysema-induced stroke. [6] Private life [ edit ] Tom of Finland Compass in Hand: Selections from the Rothschild Foundation Collection The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York 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]