The UK’s first public exhibition dedicated solely to Finnish-born Touko Laaksonen (1920–91), better known as iconic, gay erotic draughtsman Tom of Finalnd.
This exhibition marking the centenary of Laaksonen's birth celebrates the artist whose unique aesthetic and homoerotic visions had a profound impact on Western culture despite living and working in a country where both homosexuality and pornography were illegal. Featuring 40 works on paper produced from the 1960s to the 1980s, both be...
The UK’s first public exhibition dedicated solely to Finnish-born Touko Laaksonen (1920–91), better known as iconic, gay erotic draughtsman Tom of Finalnd.
This exhibition marking the centenary of Laaksonen's birth celebrates the artist whose unique aesthetic and homoerotic visions had a profound impact on Western culture despite living and working in a country where both homosexuality and pornography were illegal. Featuring 40 works on paper produced from the 1960s to the 1980s, both before and after homosexuality was decriminalised in much of Europe and America. Tom of Finland: Love and Liberation includes early drawings of men fighting — one of the only legal ways to show physical contact between men before decriminalisation —and illustrations from his iconic Kake comics as well as rare linocuts produced in very limited editions. Many of these works, on loan from the Los Angeles-based Tom of Finland Foundation, are accessible to the public for the first time.
Located at the House of Illustration in Granary Square behind Kings Crossand featuring previously unseen but iconic drawings from Tom of Finland Foundation’s collection – unabashed tributes to gay sexuality and identity whose impact and influence remain undiminished.
House of Illustration
2 Granary Square,
King's Cross,
London,
N1C 4BH
020 3696 2020
Tue to Sat 10am–5.30pm
Sun 11am–5.30pm
Discounted £5 entry first Friday of every month 5:30–8:30pm.