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Pencil sketch of a portrait on a man with a sailor's hat on

6 March – 28 June 2020
Exhibited at the House of Illustration

The UK’s first public exhibition dedicated solely to gay cultural icon Tom of Finland (born Touko Laaksonen) on the centenary of his birth.

This exhibition celebrated the artist whose unique aesthetic and homoerotic visions had a profound impact on the likes of Queen and the Village People – despite living and working in a country where both homosexuality and pornography were illegal.

It featured iconic, previously unseen drawings from Tom of Finland Foundation’s collection – unabashed tributes to gay sexuality and identity which continue to have an outsize influence today.

Selected reviews and articles

★★★★
"The exhibition carefully contextualises Tom of Finland’s art and its place in queer history..."

The Queer Review

Illustration of a sailor stepping into or out of a boat with a man in a leather jacket in the background

'Sailor and the Cyclist' series, 1963

Sailor and the Cyclist, 1963 © Tom of Finland, Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

Illustration ofthe front and back view of a man in an open shirt and striped bellbottom trousers

Untitled, 1974

Portrait of a shirtless man in diamond-shaped frame

Untitled, 1985

All artworks © Tom of Finland, Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

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