Original Article in Spanish/ Artículo original en español: Reinaldo Cedeño Pineda http://laislaylaespina.blogspot.com/2009/01/tom-de-finlandia-el-lpiz-de-apolo.html
Translated by / Traducido por: Leonard Alfred Mbago Hechavarría *
He had no similar using ink and pencil. His studies of the masculine body are outstanding in the history of the graphic arts. He created erotic icons that inflamed and went beyond of the art itself. His name Touko Laaksonen, well-known as Tom of Finland.
To nose around his work, requires great perspective, no prejudices, to reveal in front of our eyes the best of the artist with all his skills.
He drew woodcutters, cowboys, soldiers, policemen, motorcyclists, sailormen …
He drew them as no one did. His vanishing points and size are amazing. Shades and lines that draw unforgettable characters.
Tom of Finland represents the homoerotic art´s perfection, seen from the artistic utopia point of view.
He drew men wearing leather stuff, very strong, “pants and T-shirts, extremely tight, in those strategic parts of the virile body”. [1], with big sexual organs, completely erects. He drew black and white men… in bars, forests, saunas… always free and without affectation. He drew above all a dream, and as an artist of tradition and founder, his significance…
His character could eroticize many people –what is not a black mark, of course not– but his courage does not lie in his morbid fascination, but in the aesthetic constructed from the essential point.
The aesthetic proposal of Tom of Finland, even when it is amalgamated with Eros –impudent eroticism many times– in his exceeded excellence. Art has no surname.
Genuine art that explored taboo zones, he highlighted the homo Eros, set it free from ghetto and gave it references that recovers new meanings every time.
The dazzled boy
He studied art in the capital city of his country, Helsinki and “there he began drawing those Finnish manly men that attracted his attention”. [2]
The military life was a brand new experience for him: He was a soldier in The Second World War, event that remained in his work. Before the end of the war, he began to work in advertising campaigns and his draws began to improve: “overwhelming men because their uncommonly masculinity and shocking homo scenes saturated of a theatrical touch” [3]
Touko acquired his well-known universal name when he sent his work to the American magazine Physique Pictorial (1957) with the pseudonym of Tom of Finland “to avoid problems of discrimination in his homeland”. [4]
Then his comic and erotic albums, his exhibitions… The character of the sailorman Kake obtained fame.
The struggle by the collective rights of gay people the next years launched his work, exhibited all over the world.
His art was used together with fashion, particularly perfumery, hairstyle and men clothing (T-shirts and jackets). Many runways took outfits and styles according to his work.
During 2008, the gallery Minimum space in Madrid, exhibited works made by Tom, and these are some of the words:
“If the past exposition was based exclusively on his preparatory draws of the publications, pencil drew showing the skill and freshness of its performance, the title of the exposition, Masterpieces, gives us clues of its content: masterpieces of his production, most of them only for exhibition, not for sale”. [5]
In Los Angeles are protected valuable pieces of his work in the permanent collection of Tom of Finland, the one he created himself and others in the Modern Art Museum of San Francisco and Kiasma in Helsinki.
His influence has no limits, although sometimes appear barriers in front of his work that will finally disappear because of his exceptional talent.
NOTES:
[1] y [3] Miguel Alonso Hernández Victoria: “Tom de Finlandia el imaginario de la masculinidad ruda” http://www.enkidumagazine.com/art/2004/080504/E_001_080504.html
[2] Tom de Finlandia: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_de_Finlandia
[4]y [5] Masterpieces Tom of Finland. Galería Espacio Mínimo. (ARTE10) www.arte10.com/noticias/propuesta-441.html
* The translater Leonard Alfred Mbago is a foreing language student.
RELATED ARTICLES /ARTÍCULOS RELACIONADOS
Sportsmen out of the closet / Deportistas gay fuera del armario
---MAPPLETHORPE: God of the photographic Eros/ El dios del Eros fotográfico http://laislaylaespina.blogspot.com/2009/11/robert-mapplethorpe-el-dios-del-eros.html
---Eros´s dialogues / Diálogos del EROS
---HERMAN PUIG: - Bodies of light / Los cuerpos de la luz
---Naked British Sportsmen / Deportistas británicos en pelotas
---Eroticism and pornography : The thin red line / Erotismo y pornografía: La delgada línea roja:
---We are not God: Landmarks of gay art in Cuba / NO SOMOS DIOS: Hitos del arte gay en Cuba
---Tom of Finland:Apolo´s pencil / TOM de Finlandia: El lápiz de Apolo
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