Tom of Finland Life & Influences

As was mentioned in the previous post,Tom of Finland part I,the influence of men in uniform especially Bikers played a large part in Tom of Finland life.After World War II there was a considerable rise in bikers and their culture emerged as an act representing their rejection of  post war conformity.He drew images as sketches of bikers and men dressed in leather and denim to show a different male image compared to the mainstream ideal of the time.He wanted to show physical power and self power in an untamed fashion,At that time in 1956 the mainstream image of a man was a somber looking and sensitive psychologist or medical type man that had a passive nature

Tuomo Laaksonen

Censorship with Tom of Finland

In the 1950s and 1960s,he became more influenced by the censorship that was occurring in the United States.At that time the US heavily censored any images that involved homosexuality and sexual behavior.This is why his less explicit work had to be featured in athletic magazines as opposed to pornographic magazines because homosexual pornography was illegal.Tom of Finland’s more explicit work went unpublished at this time because there was no place or forum to submit and legally show it.

US Supreme Court Ruling for Tom of Finland

Later in 1962,the US Supreme Court made a ruling that photographs showing nude men were no longer obscene.After the ruling,things such as gay pornographic magazines and films showing nude men were allowed to be distributed.When this occurred,Laaksonen(Tom of Finland) was able to publish and publicly show his work that was otherwise deemed more explicit and overtly homosexual and erotic.At this same time his work became more masculine in that the men and images had more exaggerated muscularly built bodies

Laaksonens explicit works were still regarded as underground material at this time and meant for people with private collections of this type of pornographic literature and images.In 1973 his work became popular in mainstream Gay culture and he published eroticized comic books named Kake and held exhibitions.Later that year,he quit his former full time office job working at an International Firm for advertising in order to focus solely on his love of drawing and art.

In the mid 1970s,his work became more realistic and displayed qualities that a photograph has.His work became based on photographs  during this time but they were not supposed to be precise reproductions of the images.It was in 1979 that he and a friend founded The Tom Of Finland Company,which later was deemed the Tom of Finland Foundation.The establishment had a main purpose to collect,preserve and exhibit erotic homosexual artwork.

In the late 1990s,his company produced a fashion line that was inspired by his artwork.Garments like cut off jeans and jackets seen in his drawings were made and sold to a waiting captive audience..The fashion catered for both mainstream fashion and his own ideas ands imagination.These lines even launched with runaway shows

Tom Finland was an influential artist in Gay culture.Much of his work was thought to be extremely controversial and critics had mixed reactions in regard to it,Despite the differentiating  opinions others had about his works and drawings,the fact remains to this day it had an impact on culture and is still being studied today.Tom of Finland died in Helsinki,Finland,7-November-1991