Touko Laaksonen Tom of Finland
(1920-1991)
Tom of Finland ( Touko Laaksonen) was born in Kaarina, Finland in 1920. In 1939 he moved to Helsinki to attend art college, and created his first homoerotic drawings. Following his release from the army after Work War II, he began to work in advertising, and continued to draw his fantasies. He submitted his work to the American bodybuilding magazine Physique Pictorial, and his images were an immediate success which was followed by the publication of numerous booklets and anthologies. Because of the conservative social climate in 1957, he chose to be published under the pseudonym “Tom of Finland”. His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide since 1973. He founded the Tom of Finland Company in 1979, and the Tom of Finland Foundation was formed five years later as a non-profit educational archive to preserve, restore, and exhibit erotic art. In 1991, he was featured in the film documentary Daddy and the Muscle Academy- The Art, Life, and Times of Tom of Finland. He died in 1991.