Porn Again

Ten years ago Taschen introduced The Art of Pleasure, an influential tome about the work of Tom of Finland, born Touko Laaksonen, whose explicit sexual drawings of ultra-masculine men who love men are among the most collected—and, for some, indispensable—queer images of the 70s and 80s, even gracing the hallowed walls of MoMA. Since bigger is usually better, the follow-up is Tom of Finland XXL ($200), a 14-pound chunk of hunk containing nearly 1000 drawings and paintings culled from collections around the world.

Straddling the tightrope between art and porn, the massive monograph proves that Laaksonen, who died in 1991, hasn’t lost his power to shock, blush and arouse. Every image is ripe with swelling muscles, growing bulges and puckering orifices, not to mention a cornucopia of gourd-sized erections. But underneath all the exaggerated anatomies, the drawings are sweet celebrations of idealized love, and it’s this tension between the obscene and the innocent that continues to fascinate.

Put together by Dian Hanson, Taschen’s “Sexy Book” editor, XXL includes essays by John Waters, Camille Paglia and a charming ode to “Tom’s Tits” by Armistead Maupin. Yet, unnecessarily, the book strains to justify Laaksonen’s place in the canon of art history greats—parallels to Michelangelo are inevitable, but comparing a drawing of two men engaged in 69 to a Henry Moore sculpture seems a stretch. Few would question Laaksonen’s standing as a legit artist, but more importantly, the book is a testament to Laaksonen’s enormous impact on gay and non-gay culture, helping make the fetishization of beefcake acceptable and thus paving the way for everything from Diet Coke commercials to Tom Ford’s marketing fantasies.

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