Tom of Finland (aka Touko Laaksonen) gets his first solo public exhibition in the UK with Love and Liberation at the House of Illustration. Featuring iconic images as well as previously unseen drawings from Tom of Finland Foundation’s collection, the exhibition forms part of the ongoing #TOMs100 celebration of his birth.
Forty works on paper produced from the 1960s to the 1980s makeup this small, but important showing. On display are early illustrations of men, some of his iconic Kake comics and rare linocuts, some on display to the public for the first time.
Tom of Finland’s work has a major influence on pop culture, from the work of Robert Mapplethorpe, the aesthetics of Freddie Mercury and the Village People and more.
Signs outside warn of extreme material, but few of Tom’s more risqué works are on show here. The focus here is more on the sexual gaze rather than sexual acts.
The exhibition carefully contextualises Tom of Finland’s art and its place in queer history but a larger, more comprehensive view of Tom of Finland’s work is clearly due in the U.K. Until then, head to the House of Illustration to see these influential pieces in the flesh.
Images (in order):
Untitled, from ‘Sex on the Train’, 1974 © Tom of Finland, Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection
Untitled, from the ‘Tattooed Sailor’ series 1962 © Tom of Finland, Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection
Untitled, from the ‘Sailor and the Cyclist’ series, 1963 © Tom of Finland, Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection
Untitled, 1974 © Tom of Finland, Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection
Untitled, 1985, © Tom of Finland, Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection
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