{"id":698,"date":"2009-06-16T02:30:21","date_gmt":"2009-06-16T09:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/06\/tom_finland_-_the_problem_with\/"},"modified":"2009-06-16T02:30:21","modified_gmt":"2009-06-16T09:30:21","slug":"tom_finland_-_the_problem_with","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/06\/tom_finland_-_the_problem_with.html","title":{"rendered":"Tom of Finland – the problem with heaven (ripe fruit never fall)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The supple line Tom of Finland (Touko) <\/em>is entirely devoted to
\narticulating the robust bodies of young men. Always hung, hard and
\nwilling, they represent a state of imperishable bliss.<\/p>\n

\"tomfinlandheaven.jpg\"<\/span>In the gap between the artist’s
\nidealized fixations and the reality of flesh, the audience for Tom of Finland’s
\ndrawings live. The drawings arrest time, which ticks onward. They are a
\ntime out that never ends, all coming and no going, all light and no
\ndark. <\/p>\n

Some who disdain his work
\nare homophobic, but there are other reasons for giving it a
\npass. The artist created a heavenly world, a place where, in Wallace
\nSteven’s phrase, ripe fruit never fall<\/i><\/a>. If there were such a thing as a wave forever hanging at its
\ncrest, surfers would shun it. <\/p>\n

Heaven is where the
\nimagination goes to die. Even in the literature of the faithful, hell
\nis where the action is, which is why scholars say
\nMilton was of the devil’s party. What do mine eyes with grief behold?<\/i>
\nasks Lucifer, Milton’s fallen angel. It’s easy to love Dante’s Inferno<\/i> while failing to finish (or start) his Paradiso<\/i>.  <\/p>\n

Tom of Finland refused to acknowledge that joy must end. Aesthetically, he is saved
\nfrom irrelevance by the elegance of line. If painters of
\nperfect flowers are minor, then he is minor. His interest in youth never faded in the eternal sunshine of his mind. <\/p>\n

Set
\nin the political context of his
\ntime, however, the artist who died in 1991 at age 71 is a hero. To
\ndelineate a version of the beautiful
\nwhich mainstream culture rejects is a brave act. Just as a
\nsingle man in 1989 stood up to the tanks in Tiananmen Square, Tom of Finland stood up to hatred by articulating its opposite. His art is the
\nflower that anti-war protesters in the late ’60s placed in the
\nbusiness
\nend of National Guard rifles. Make love, not war.<\/p>\n

A suite of his drawings is on view at the Greg
\nKucera Gallery<\/a> as part of a group exhibit titled, I.D.: Individual
\nDemographics<\/i><\/a>. (More on ID<\/i> soon.)<\/p>\n

Wednesday night at 7 at the gallery, Blowing Up Demographics<\/i>,
\na discussion moderated by Mary Ann Peters, features playwright
\nKi Gottberg, and artists
\nJohn Feodorov and Margot Quan Knight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The supple line Tom of Finland (Touko) is entirely devoted to articulating the robust bodies of young men. Always hung, hard and willing, they represent a state of imperishable bliss. In the gap between the artist’s idealized fixations and the reality of flesh, the audience for Tom of Finland’s drawings live. The drawings arrest time, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}