Loggers Cushion

Made in plush velvet, this oversized cushion features a watercolour painting from Tom of Finland’s 1975 book ‘The Loggers’, which presented his idyllic fantasies of rugged young lumberjacks working, resting and freely enjoying one another in the woods. Watercolours are a notable part of the artist’s output. Here the soft wash of colour describes a bucolic ideal and lends an air of gentleness to the scene. Tom of Finland’s pioneering depictions of homosexual machismo in his images of bikers, soldiers, cowboys, sailors and labourers broadly represent queer, leather and muscle communities. A master draughtsman, his works gave form to an imaginative universe that, in turn, helped fuel real-world liberation movements and had a significant influence on a wide range of cultural figures, including the Village People, Freddie Mercury, Jean Paul Gaultier and Robert Mapplethorpe.