Tucked away on a quiet street in Echo Park behind a row of tall bushes is a 3,000-square-foot Craftsman with a black wood door that houses the Tom of Finland Foundation. Started in 1984 to promote the art of Tom of Finland (born Touko Valio Laaksonen), the Finnish artist known for his hypersexualized imagery of men with bulging muscles clad in leather and fetish gear (Marlon Brando in “The Wild One” was a big inspiration), the organization now supports and preserves the full spectrum of LGBTQ erotic art. Laaksonen lived at the house for about a decade before he died in 1991. His second-floor bedroom is still intact, including his drawing table with pencils and paintbrushes. His Finnish army uniform is displayed on a dress form.
“He liked the light in there when the windows were open,” says foundation president and co-founder Durk Dehner.
It’s Dehner who helped secure Laaksonen’s...
“He liked the light in there when the windows were open,” says foundation president and co-founder Durk Dehner.
It’s Dehner who helped secure Laaksonen’s...
- 6/2/2021
- by Marc Malkin
- Variety Film + TV
Premiering at Goteborg Film Festival where it won the Fipresci Prize and moving on to Tribeca before playing many other festivals, Tom of Finland would seem to be testing the Academy with such a gay subject, but no more so than France with Bpm, Beats Per Minute, and South Africa’s The Wound, or in the past with Milk and the Celluloid Closet, and certainly within the context of the Academy Awards’ diversity this season, with Moonlight, a possible winner of best picture, and Luca Guadagnino’s stunningly beautiful Call Me by Your Name with Armie Hammer looking to make a run at Best Actor, the Academy’s spotty record of recognizing gay-themed cinema may be improving.
Obviously, with such iconic art, the Lgbtq world would be writing at length about this film and here I quote Blade, America’s Lgbt News Source article by Michael Jortner:
But what...
Obviously, with such iconic art, the Lgbtq world would be writing at length about this film and here I quote Blade, America’s Lgbt News Source article by Michael Jortner:
But what...
- 11/10/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Exclusive: Dome Karukoski, here in Toronto with Heart of a Lion, is now set to direct his first English-language film, a biopic of groundbreaking artist Tom of Finland.
This will be the only authorized biopic of the artist as cleared by the Tom of Finland Foundation.
Tom of Finland was famous for his groundbreaking sexually explicit drawings of muscular men; his work is in collections at MoMA and Lacma.
Producers Helsinki-filmi have secured exclusive rights to the entire archives and all images from the artist. “We are working quite closely with the Foundation,” producer Aleksi Bardy told Screen. “It was very important for them that we wanted to respect the copyrights for his work. He has been pirated so much over the years.”
“I think it’s a story of liberation, it’s a very universal story,” Bardy added.
Casting of an international actor will be announced in early 2014 and the film will start shooting in December...
This will be the only authorized biopic of the artist as cleared by the Tom of Finland Foundation.
Tom of Finland was famous for his groundbreaking sexually explicit drawings of muscular men; his work is in collections at MoMA and Lacma.
Producers Helsinki-filmi have secured exclusive rights to the entire archives and all images from the artist. “We are working quite closely with the Foundation,” producer Aleksi Bardy told Screen. “It was very important for them that we wanted to respect the copyrights for his work. He has been pirated so much over the years.”
“I think it’s a story of liberation, it’s a very universal story,” Bardy added.
Casting of an international actor will be announced in early 2014 and the film will start shooting in December...
- 9/9/2013
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
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