Tom of Finland
dal 28/7/2006 al 8/9/2006
Segnalato da
28/7/2006
Tom of Finland
Western Project, Culver City
Rough. His exploration of the erotic and sexual imagination of the modern man has had an enormous impact on the evolution of our construct of the male image. The artist's drawings are a benchmark for ideas of freedom, prefiguring the sexual revolution of the later 20th century.
Rough
Early Notebooks. Preliminary Drawings. Master Works
Western Project is proud to present a historic selection of drawings and
artist notebooks by Tom of Finland. Touko Laaksonen (1920-1991), also
known as Tom of Finland, is one of the most important artists of the
20th century. His exploration of the erotic and sexual imagination of
the modern man has had an enormous impact on the evolution of our
construct of the male image. Tom of Finland's drawings are a benchmark
for ideas of freedom, prefiguring the sexual revolution of the later
20th century and at the front lines of the gay liberation movement
beginning in the 1950s. This exhibition explores an artist fully formed
at a very young age becoming a master of drawing and story telling.
Never considering his drawings as fine art, Tom worked outside the
traditional art world, obsessed with his vision of pleasure and erotic
freedom. His work is an indictment of the male libido - aggressive,
relentless, and playful - consumed with the possibilities of Eros. The
images are heroic, iconoclastic, flushed with testosterone and humor.
His work exemplifies a rare clarity, achieved by the single focus of
imagination and the consistent practice of craft by an artist. His
mastery of drawing formidably illuminates his love of the male form,
akin to Picasso obsession with women, and Russ Meyer's awe of the
feminine figure. His work influenced numerous artists over many decades
such as Andy Warhol, Bob Mizer, Robert Mapplethorpe, Mike Kelly, and a
host of others.
This exhibition begins with the artist's earliest known notebooks (from
the age of 7) showing his understanding of the narrative comic form and
style. The preliminary drawings from the early 1940s are the seedbed of
his drawing style to come; contemporary scenes of male sexual conduct -
cruising, preening, seduction, pairs, and groups - vanilla to hard core
action, with each advancing decade bringing different codes and
fetishes. There could be no Super Hero movie from the 1980s on, not
informed by his imagery. It is Tom's acute facility of drawing that
created a larger than life image of men for his audience; a certainty
that male sexuality was absolutely MALE and authentic, including
romantic love. What is extraordinary, and still controversial, is the
artist's hand - as it testifies to the desire of all expressions of
physical contact with total abandon, and with absolute will. The
drawings document his uncontested wonder of what modern life was, and
could be. They are an unapologetic and irony-free testament to art and a
life lived 100%.
Drawings by Tom of Finland are in the collections of The San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Portland Museum
of Art and most recently, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and The
Chicago Art Institute. His work has been exhibited at the White Chapel
Art Gallery in London, LACMA, Whitney Museum of American Art, Jyvaskyla
Art Museum in Finland, and many other museums and galleries around the
world.
Opening reception Saturday July 29th, 5-8pm
Western Project
3830 Main St. - Culver City