David Kordansky Gallery presents “Tom of Finland: 100 Years,” an online exhibition celebrating the centennial of the artist’s birth. Featuring never-before-exhibited drawings in pencil and pen and ink, as well as Tom’s personal collages, the show is now live in the gallery’s Online Viewing Room at DavidKordanskyGallery.com and will be on view through May 12, 2020, 8:00 am Pacific Time. To access Tom of Finland: 100 Years, please CLICK here.

Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen, Finnish; b. May 8, 1920, d. November 7, 1991) has long been recognized as one of the 20th century’s great visual innovators. As he confronted the stigmas and stereotypes that long burdened homosexual desire, his depictions of empowered gay men fully enjoying their sexuality proved liberating on social and aesthetic levels alike. The sheer range of his influence on the culture at large is immeasurable. His work assumes a key role in the art historical discourse (Tom’s drawings are in the collections of institutions like The Museum of Modern Art, New York and regularly appear in museum shows throughout the world), while also occupying a place in every corner of the popular imagination.

 Showcasing the breadth of Tom’s material strategies, the exhibition includes not only prime examples of the artist’s heralded finished drawings, pen and ink renderings, and preparatory sketches––renowned for their detail and their revolutionary representations of the male body––but also mixed-media collages that highlight his critical eye and research practices. The diversity of the work on view is a fitting celebration for the 100th birthday of a figure who created a genre in which sex, politics, aesthetics, and history play equal roles. DavidKordanskyGallery.com