The late (1920 - 1991) Touko Laaksonen, better known as
Tom Of Finland, is regarded as one of the pre-eminent artists of the 20th Century who has investigated the sexual nature of modern man, and has been at the visual forefront of the gay liberation movement from its nascent beginnings in the late 1950s to the present.
Strong, aggressive and controversial from their initial presentations, Tom Of Finland’s work (almost exclusively on paper) has spawned and influenced two generations of artists who have delved into and tackled the concepts of the erotic male.
The Mark Moore Gallery exhibition will present a selection of study/preparatory drawings that Tom Of Finland created between 1945 and 1990; this will be the first one-person gallery exhibition in Los Angeles for the artist since 1978.
In addition, Mark Moore Gallery will present a selection of works by the artist from the permanent collection of the Tom Of Finland Foundation, a Los Angeles-based non-profit archive which was founded in 1986 to preserve and maintain the artist’s works.
Works by Tom Of Finland have recently entered the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; these are the first two American institutions to acquire works by the artist.