http://davidkordanskygallery.com/exhibition/early-work-1944-1972/
David Kordansky Gallery is pleased to announce Early Work 1944 – 1972, its first exhibition of work by Tom of Finland. The exhibition will open on Saturday, January 17, 2015 at 5130 W. Edgewood Place and will continue on view through March 7, 2015. An opening reception will be held on January 17 from 6:00pm until 8:00pm.
Touko Laaksonen a.k.a. Tom of Finland (1920 – 1991) is widely regarded as one of the 20th century’s most influential artists for his revolutionary representation of the male figure. His drawings of fantastically muscled men engrossed in acts of homoerotic desire comprise one of the most inventive portrayals of the human body in modern times. These pictures of gay men as virile, confident, and unashamed–equally radical for their near-illicit, underground distribution–originated an empowering queer iconography and liberating spirit that increasingly inspires popular culture.
This exhibition surveys the artist’s formative years across fifteen works, each selected in close collaboration with the Los Angeles-based Tom of Finland Foundation. These graphite drawings, gouaches, and inked storyboards–the majority of which have never been shown before–broadly trace the evolution of Tom’s exquisite draftsmanship and compositions from his earliest extant erotic works, executed just after serving in the Finnish Army during WWII, through to a complete comic produced in 1972, the year before Tom both earned his first solo exhibition, and retired from his advertising career to devote himself fulltime to his art.
Among the earliest works featured is a group of rare sketches from 1944 depicting clothed couples enjoying sensual trysts. The delicate fashion-illustrational style and the coifed hairstyles reflect the era, but the exposed and exaggerated genitalia, a burgeoning pre-steroid musculature, and most significantly, expressions of pride and playfulness signal Tom’s pioneering approach to sexuality. At the time, homosexuality was unequivocally taboo, if not illegal, and the dominant image of gay men was that of weakness, sickness, and effeteness. In a masterful 1947 gouache on view, Tom both flouts and acknowledges these prejudices with the depiction of a commanding, strong-jawed figure discreetly pleasuring his companion. The picture also displays an early fetish for leather and military garb, trappings Tom would adopt throughout his world as symbols of power and masculinity.