April 27 2016 THIS WEEK! The official guide to Gay Palm Springs for 21 years.

AdamsArtExpose’
TOM OF FINLAND
Finland is a Nordic country sandwiched
between Sweden, Norway, and Russia. Touko
Laaksomen was born there on May 8, 1920.
His name, Touko is derived from the Finish
work for May, Toukokuu. His parents were
teachers. He was raised surrounded by art,
literature, and music. It is noted in his biography
that by the age of 5 he was playing piano
and drawing comic strips.
Touko was also keenly interested in the
outdoors men of his country at an early
age. Lumberjacks, port workers, sailors and
farmers were prevalent in his environment.
When Russia invaded Finland during WWII,
Touko was drafted and became a lieutenant
in the military. It was during his time in the
military that he was able to live some of the
sexual fantasies with men that he had desired.
Following the war, he went back to studying
art and piano while doing freelance artwork
for window advertising and fashion design.
At the same time he was secretly creating
drawings, while naked in his room, of the
sexual fantasies that he could not find live on
the streets, as was readily prevalent during the
war. He was a member of the bohemian postwar
set in Helsinki, playing piano at parties
and in cafes. He traveled often and visited gay
cruising areas in several of the major cities.
In 1953 he met Veli, the man he lived with
during the next 28 years.
At the urging of a friend, in 1956, he sent a
sample of his secret art work to a popular
American muscle magazine, Physique. He
signed his name on the art as, “Tom” thinking
that “Touko Laasonen” would not be easily
pronounced by an American audience.
The drawing of a hunky lumberjack was featured
in “Physique Pictorial” drawn by, “Tom
of Finland”. From then on this name identified
his work. Art work depicting homosexuality
did not sell well in the 1950’s The popularity
of his work, which he himself called
his, “dirty drawings” expanded. By 1973 he
was able to stop playing piano and working in
advertising, to devote full time to his drawing.
He had an exhibit in Hamburg, Germany in
1973, in which several of his drawings were
stolen. He agreed to another exhibit in Los
Angeles in 1978. This was the first time he
traveled to the United States. Over the next
several years he traveled back and forth to the
U.S. for exhibits in Los Angeles, San Francisco,
and New York. He became a growing celebrity
in the gay community and gained friends
with Etienne and Robert Mapplethorpe.
In 1981 his long time lover, Veli, died of throat
cancer. Tom became friends with a Canadian
American, Durk Dehner who also became
manager for his art. He traveled between the
U.S. and Helsinki often during the 80’s, usually
staying 6 months in L.A. and 6 months in Finland.
In 1988 he was diagnosed with emphysema.
The medication which he was taking
for the disease caused hand tremers which
made it difficult to continue the fine detailed
drawing, for which he had become known.
Instead he switched to working with pastels,
completing several colorful male nudes. He
died in 1991 of the disease.
HIs work continues to be recognized as bringing
gay sexuality into a wider understanding
and acceptance. The adoption of 3 of his
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