Tom of Finland
Hitchhiker Tea Towel
£20
100% cotton twill tea towel featuring the work of Tom of Finland, exclusive to House of Voltaire
Dimensions
68.5 x 47 cm
Finishing
100% cotton twill
Tom of Finland, 'Untitled', 1962. From the Atlantic Model Guild 'The Tattooed Sailor' series. © 1962 Tom of Finland Foundation.Courtesy the Tom of Finland Foundation
About The Artwork
Tom of Finland’s works both made use of, and came to define, a queer lexicon of masculine archetypes. Tom’s men are hypermuscular, hypersexual, and often cast in blue-collar roles. Cowboys, sailors, and labourers were already tropes within early gay and physique publications, but the artist further exaggerated and refined them to heroic proportions. The most enduring of Tom's works are his drawings of bikers and leathermen. Inspired by Marlon Brando in ‘The Wild Ones’ (1953), the artist combined leather-clad bikers with his fetish for police and army uniforms, establishing an iconic gay look. Adopting the tight jeans, caps, and boots of working and military men as part of his aesthetic, the artist appropriated signifiers of class and machismo as symbols of sexuality itself.
About Tom of Finland
Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen, 1920-1991) is recognised for his ground-breaking representation of the male figure. A master draughtsman, Tom’s passion for both his medium and his subject matter enabled him to become a powerful cultural force. Tom gave form to an imaginative universe that, in turn, helped fuel real-world liberation movements and enabled gay men to access their strength in new ways. Tom’s drawings reaffirm the centrality of sexuality, joy, and the body in all areas of human endeavour.
In recent years there has been a significant re-evaluation of his artistic practice. Previously somewhat dismissed as only of gay interest, his work has since been exhibited in galleries and public institutions (David Kordansky, LA; ICA, London; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Artists Space, New York). His work is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki; Art Institute of Chicago; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.