Tom of Finland is widely regarded as one of the 20th century’s most influential artists for his revolutionary representation of the male figure. His drawings of fantastically muscled men engrossed in acts of homoerotic desire comprise one of the most inventive portrayals of the human body in modern times. These pictures of gay men as virile, confident, and unashamed–equally radical for their near-illicit, underground distribution–originated an empowering queer iconography and liberating spirit that has marked popular culture, art, fashion, and human rights. Over a career that spanned nearly fifty years, he produced thousands of images beginning in the 1940s, robbing straight homophobic culture of its most virile and masculine archetypes; bikers, hoodlums, lumberjacks, cops, cowboys, and sailors, and recasting them–through deft skill and fantastic imagination–unapologetic, self-aware, and boastfully proud enthusiasts of gay sex.

The artist was diagnosed with emphysema in 1988. Eventually, the disease and medication caused his hands to tremble, leading him to switch mediums from pencil to pastels. He died in 1991 of an emphysema-induced stroke.

Solo and two-person exhibitions devoted to the life and work of Tom of Finland have been presented at Postimuseu in Tampere, Finland, Los Angeles’ MOCA, Kulturhuset in Stockholm, and Artists Space in New York. His work has also been featured in group exhibitions at institutions such as Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, London's Institute of Contemporary Art, and Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in New York.

Text Courtesy of Henzel Studio. Image courtesy of Tom of Finland Foundation