Tom of Finland: Made in Germany

A spectacular book showing life and work of the Finnish icon from an unknown perspective with around 150 illustrations and well researched texts. Tom of Finland has became the most famous and influential Finnish artist of the 20th century. Born Touko Laaksonen in 1920, his iconic depiction of self-confident and life-affirming gayness gave decisive impulses to the international gay movements from the 1960s onwards. But although we clearly associate his portrayals of sensual and powerful cowboys, farm hands, soldiers and leathermen with the USA, Tom of Finland's rise to gay icon received the gam e-changing impetus neither in his native Finland nor in the USA. It was, of all places, the city of Hamburg and Tom's friendship with key exponents of the local gay scene in the early 1970s that helped him to his first exhibition ever. He even created a grand mural for the legendary Tom's Bar , until today the only one legitimately named after him. Regular commissions to design posters and ads...