A catalogue of legendary gay artist Tom Of Finland celebrates good sex and good art (NSFW)

Despite legalising homosexuality in 1971, it still took four decades for Finland to acknowledge and honour one of their largest exports: the endlessly influential Tom Of Finland. The artist is a powerhouse not only of the queer art movement, but also of pencil illustrations themselves. The man behind the legend, Touko Valio Laaksonen, was a gay man conscripted during World War 2 who later worked in an advertising agency. Slyly drawing his erotic images while at work, the artist is quoted to have said “if I don’t have an erection when I’m doing a drawing, I know it’s no good”.

Luxury book sellers Taschen have gone above and beyond in honouring Tom’s work in “little books” of drawings surrounding his signature characters; bikers, blue collar workers, military men and robbers. The work is overseen by Dian Hanson, Taschen’s “sexy book” editor who’s been at the spearhead of archiving and republishing Tom Of Finland’s legacy.

Taschen’s newest release, the 500+ page Tom of Finland: The Complete Kake Comics. 45th Ed follows Touko’s ultimate leatherman, Kake, as he travels across 26 comic episodes liberating his libido and living out Tom’s personal fantasies. “At Taschen we don’t separate sex and art,” says Dian. She recalls a time when she thought she may have to become “artsy” in order to edit erotic books and was told by Benedikt Taschen: “we publish good sex and good art. We reject bad sex and bad art. We do not draw a line.” More than good sex and good art, Tom’s work is important.

“Tom captured a period in gay evolution when men were emerging from the shadows, claiming their sexuality, and asserting they were men, equal to others, and more than equal in some, ah, special ways,” says Dian. “Most of his work preceded AIDS, and gives those unable to enjoy that exuberant, carefree time a peek at what they missed.” Tom Of Finland helped create a strong vision of queer masculinity through his flawless, silvery graphite renders that captured the dimensions of greased hair, black leather and the definitions of muscles, veins, nipples and shafts in distinctive fashions, ones that separated his work from mere nudes and high art portraits of nakedness. Or in other words: “Tom was just a helluva great artist who drew hypermasculine bodies that were also somehow cute and cuddly as puppies,” Dian points out.

Tom’s work, (alongside similarly lewd artists Beryl Cook and Robert Crumb) has found success in recent decades breaking away from the “bawdy kitsch” label, mostly due to Taschen’s continued positioning of the work in the art book industry. “Without Taschen, it’s quite possible Tom would still be seen as a niche gay artist instead of as a fine artist,” says Dian. “I have seen Tom’s art taken into the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art in LA, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and gallery exhibitions in Berlin, Stockholm, London, Tokyo and LA. No other erotic artist has this kind of recognition and appreciation.”

Also part of Tachen’s oeuvre are the Tom of Finland bookends, designed by Daffy London and based on Tom’s original artworks of recurring character Durk and Pekka. “They’re steeped in queer liberation and a juicy, defiant past,” says Daffy. “We win more rights, but get more governed on what we can see. And now, in this censored, uptight world? They’re more urgent than ever.” It was a loving act for Daffy – to sculpt these titanic characters, from the “the curvature of a butt” to the “the size of a nipple”.

What’s next for Taschen’s series on Tom Of Finland? “I’d love to do a comprehensive book of Tom’s preparatory sketches,” says Dian. “From the hundreds I’ve seen, he expressed his personal fantasies most clearly in these, and then polished them to commercial tastes in the final.” No matter what side of Tom we see, from the publisher’s large catalogue and exhibitions of some of his 3500 drawings, his riotously naughty illustrations are always rooted in a sincere appreciation for erotica and the pure free-will of drawing whatever gets you growing.