Tom of Finland

“In those days, a gay man was made to feel nothing but shame about his feelings and his sexuality. I wanted my drawings to counteract that, to show gay men being happy and positive about who they were. Oh, I didn’t sit down to think this all out carefully. But I knew-right from the start-that my men were going to be proud and happy men!”

-Tom of Finland, date unknown

This drawing is emblematic of Tom of Finland’s comic-book-like representations of explicit sex between gay men. Significantly, this particular image includes figures wearing condoms-a profound political statement in the 1980s, when countless numbers of men, including artists in this exhibition, were dying of AIDS-related diseases transmitted through unprotected sex. Given the broad distribution of Tom of Finland’s images in various publications at the time, this work functioned as a kind of public-service announcement recommending safe-sex practices.