They start going at it, only to be joined by a jockish type in baseball cap and tank top then those three are joined by a beret-wearing soldier then a sailor shows up, and then a cowboy – in chaps, naturally – and on it goes in a roundelay of oral and anal and manual exploration. He espies a lumberjack on a bench, boots knee high, fly undone. In a 20-drawing sequence from 1977, a man kitted out in leather arrives at a verdant, homosocial pleasure garden the sign outside, a little redundantly in Tom’s world, reads “MEN ONLY”. Clothing, so key to gay signaling in the years before decriminalisation, plays a central role in Tom’s art men hint at each other via neckerchiefs and tight trousers, then boots and leather, and even though everyone is fucking almost no-one is nude.
Tom’s sexual iconography made heavy use of archetypes: individuals were less important than categories, each one with a strict (and tight) uniform. For a not small number of gay men, Tom provided a roadmap to self-definition and desire. Have a gander at the website for any gay leather emporium – for research purposes only, of course! – and you can find breeches advertised as providing “the Tom of Finland look”.
Tom followed shifts in ideals of masculinity, though he crafted them as well. The quiff gives way to the short-back-and-sides lounge suits get supplanted by rawhide and jeans. Only later, in the 1960s, did the bodies harden. In one extraordinarily sweet painting on paper from 1947, a sailor and a man in a bowtie are simply dancing, one’s hand on the other’s waist, their eyes locked as they sway across the floor. The men wear trilbies and overcoats as they grope one another’s groins or simply ogle from the sidelines. His early colour gouaches, a highlight of this show, are daintier and camper than his more familiar butch look. Just pleased to see you: Tom of Finland’s phallic supermen. But look with the eye of a historian, and Tom’s drawings appear much weightier than your average smut. Yet Tom has had a devoted following among fine artists, especially Raymond Pettibon and the late Mike Kelley, and he played a key role in the dissemination of gay imagery and the fashioning of a nascent gay pride. At first glance they may seem to be nothing but pornographic fantasias. The exhibition, spanning two spaces, is the largest showcase ever of Tom’s art: there are more than 180 drawings, featuring more boots than you’ll find in Hermès. I was reminded of that on my recent visits to Artists Space, which is hosting a major show of the art of Tom of Finland, a cult illustrator of ithyphallic musclemen, motorcycle fiends and leather gods. But gay liberty is just as important as gay equality – and liberty, especially sexual liberty, is a more powerful and dangerous idea. New York is getting set for a Pride weekend like none other, and the justified elation with which the city has greeted the Obergefell decision has made equality the theme of the celebrations. Part 5 projects Tom's vision into the future in an avant-garde orgy mixing masculine and feminine elements, always inflected by Tom's iconic aesthetic.M arriage is “a keystone of our social order”, Anthony Kennedy wrote this week in the supreme court decision legalising gay marriage in the United States. Part 4 is a present-day tribute to Tom's legacy, as Joey Mills and four of his favorite twinks explore the erotic playground at Tom’s house, embodying the evolution of the gay scene. In Part 3, Nate Grimes, Kurtis Wolfe, Dirk Caber, and Jaxx Thanatos enact the wet-dream-like tale of a young man's erotic transformation into a leather man, earning each piece of his outfit one fuck at a time. In part 2, Matthew Camp, Ricky Roman, River Wilson, and D'Angelo Jackson get greased up to bring Tom's beloved Kake comic story, "Service Station," to life. In part 1, a classic TOF outdoor scenario set in 1957, birdwatcher Theo Brady is caught spying on fisherman Kurtis Wolfe, and watches Kurtis submit to muscular uniformed cop Matthew Camp before joining for a threesome.
For the first time, Men.com is partnering with Tom of Finland, with the help of some of today's best artists and directors, to bring Tom's most iconic sexual visions to life. His influence over the aesthetics of gay sex continues to this day and is sure to last long into the future. If there's one man who changed the course of queer men's fantasies forever, it's erotic illustrator Tom of Finland.