Tom of Finland’s close friend speaks on the Queer artist’s iconic, horny legacy

17th March 2023, 11:18 am

 

Detail of Tom of Finland stamp issued by Finnish postal service Itella Posti Oy

 

Today, the name Tom of Finland is synonymous with the unashamedly homoerotic artwork that championed Gay sexuality in times of censorship. The artist himself, however, remains something of a mystery, and that’s largely because his mainstream success was posthumous. To shed some light on the man behind the name, PinkNews spoke with Durk Dehner, cofounder of Tom of Finland Foundation and close friend of the groundbreaking artist.

Tom of Finland was born in Finland in 1920. His experiences in the working class and within the Finnish military during WWII led him to reimagine the heterosexual ideal in images of laborers and soldiers. At the time, his depiction of confident and joyful homoeroticism contrasted the view of Queer men as frail and sensitive and depressed.

“Tom saw how Homosexuals were not being provided with any positive role modeling, they were viewed as perverts, criminals, degenerates, as society’s outcasts,” Dehner told PinkNews.

“He made it his mission to see if he could affect change within the Gay community by presenting his men in a positive, happy, well-adjusted [place]… Tom stole the male archetypes of the heterosexual alpha male and turned him Queer.”

Although he clearly had an eye for artistic subversion, the fine art world dismissed his work. “[They] were giving Tom reviews that classified him as first a pornographer, then a bit later as an illustrator,” Dehner said. “They did not perceive what the content of his work was outside of horny drawings.

“They did not see that he was creating a vision for his fellow homosexuals to relate to.”

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE BY JOHNNY LEVANIER

Published: 17th March 2023

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