ToFF presents gift to Wäinö Aaltonen Museum in Turku, Finland

Tom of Finland will not be leaving Turku entirely, even though the Capital of Culture year’s successful Tom of Finland Retrospective exhibition is closing there on December 18, 2011. The Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art (WAM) and the Åbo Akademi Library in Turku wish to collect works by Tom of Finland and material related to the artist.

Tom of Finland Foundation (ToFF) supports the desires of the city’s institutions and as a token of that support we have donated one of the artist’s works from our collection to WAM, acting as the Turku City Art Museum.

The gift is a signed, pastel portrait from 1971.

TOM OF FINLAND (Finnish, 1920 – 1991)
Untitled, 1971, Pastel on paper, 15.25” x 12.00”
ToFF #71.07, © 1971 Tom of Finland Foundation

We are very pleased to help Tom’s family and friends in his return to his native region. Turku appreciates his Beauty and shares his Message of freedom.

The work was presented to the Museum on December 15, 2011 by Tom of Finland Foundation president and cofounder, Durk Dehner, a close friend of Tom’s and together they established ToFF on December 14, 1984.

Receiving the gift was Päivi Kiiski,
Director of Fine Arts at the Museum Centre of Turku. “On the identity front, we
are especially interested in Queer research, which makes Tom particularly
fitting for our collection,” Päivi Kiiski says with gratitude.

Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen), a native of Turku’s neighboring town of Kaarina, conquered the world with his trademark style. “From an art history point of view, Tom of Finland has inspired popular culture and contemporary art in many ways. A modern art museum is the best place for his artistic legacy,” Kiiski says.

Tom passed away in 1991 and now belongs to the world.
He loved his homeland and he loved to meet people from all over the globe.
On paper, he created a world so attractive that countless
numbers of Queers sought to live in it
and, in fact, recreated Tom’s world in their world – the real world.

Published: 16th December 2011

Categorised in: Events