Numerous honors and exhibitions on the occasion of the 100th birthday of Touko Laaksonen, better known as Tom of Finland, mark the year 2020. The MSC (short for Motor-Sport-Club) Finland Tom’s Club, for example, unveiled a plaque in front of his former house in August in Helsinki. Galerie Judin in Berlin-Schöneberg opened an exhibition on September 11th titled “Made in Germany” with more than 60 international loan artworks.
The title of the exhibition initially may indicate that the artist was drawn to motorcyclists in German military uniforms and depicted such men in their brown boots and jackets during the 1940s. Many of his works are characterized by the hyper masculine men he portrayed in tight German military uniforms made of leather. When entering the exhibition, warm-yellow rooms welcome the visitor. Photos, information and drawings by the artist are presented functionally and clearly. In the middle of the gallery is a high wall with a drawing by Tom of Finland: lower male body and legs in the artist’s typically provocative style. Short, tight leather pants conceal and at the same time mark the oversized masculinity of the man shown. Handcuffs dangle from the belt and a cane stuck in his boot. A sign on the right shows that Hamburg is 69 km away. Apparently, a hitchhiker who is on his way to the Hanseatic city. It is no coincidence that the exhibition comes up with this central image.
Tom of Finland’s first exhibitions took place in the North German city in the 1970s. However, not in galleries or museums, but in the Revolt Shop, Europe’s first gay sex shop in the famous red-light district of St. Pauli. In 1974, the artist drew the first pictures directly on the wall for the opening of Tom’s Saloon, Hamburg’s oldest gay cruising bar. In the following years, the former owner of the bar bought up all the paintings Tom had drawn for the saloon, resulting in the largest private collection of his works today, consisting of 48 originals. In addition, the artist received regular orders for advertising material for gay events in Hamburg. Jobs like this enabled the Finn to become a freelance artist and to fully devote himself to his talent and art. What is admirable about the men portrayed by Tom of Finland is that they are in harmony with their sexuality, their needs and their bodies. During his life Tom created over 3,500 works. While many of these are owned by the Tom of Finland Foundation, others are either in private collections or in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
Descriptions and short biographies about the artist specify little to nothing about these Hamburg years. It is even more gratifying that Galerie Judin is dedicating an exhibition to them in the centennial. “Made in Germany” with many works that have been made available to the public for the first time can be seen until December 19 at Potsdamer Strasse 83 in Berlin. I warmly recommend a visit to all of us who admire the photorealistic drawings of Tom of Finland and are attracted to their contents. Who of us does not remember exactly the time when we discovered his works for the first time with sparkling eyes? The flair of an original drawing is many times more impressive compared to a book print or an image file.
