31.10.2010

Heated discussion on Tom of Finland Retrospective!

Tom of Finland Retrospective has caused a heated discussion already now, 2 and a half months before the exhibition opening.

And on the other hand Tom of Finland aka Touko Laaksonen still manages to provoke and create new discussion 20 years after his death - this is something not many artists could do!

With the discussion I mean the article "Tom of Finland is one of the main figures of the Turku cultureyear" on Turku Yle Radio web page

http://yle.fi/alueet/turku/2010/10/tom_of_finland_turun_kulttuurivuoden_...

and the colourful commenting on the discussion forum under the text. The articke was raised to the main webpage of Yle (finnish state-owned tv/radio) and also www.turku2011.fi wrote an article on their main page.


""Puzzled", sunday at 18:30

Those pictures are so kinky and violent looking that I feel disgusted! One should think what the children can see! Living in Kaarina I'm ashamed - isn't there anything normal to show?

  
"Gulture", saturday at 15:47
No wonder that openminded and tolerant culture circles don't tolerate anything else than stuff like this. All other non-porn is crap in their opinion.
"Mother", sunday at 10:53

Fantastic! The pictures are well made, men are beautiful, a straight woman can also enjoy these. And this (gaytheme) is so current and actual at the moment!

pate, saturday at 13:43

Oh well. When Turku is the capital of culture Finland is shown for the world through sexual minorities.
Well maybe ToF was a remarkable artist of his time and was good at that genre but shouldn't they have taken some other strenghts of Finland when planning the culture year - like cliche like nature, animals, clean air and water and maybe other art. Why was this concidered so important at this moment?

 kunnas, thursday at 14:53
Great that we finally get Tom to Finland! It's sad though that finnish and especially people in Turku don't seem to know that a remarkable artist ToF is! His art is art at best: provocative, commenting the society, bold and wonderfully drawn. --- At last a good reason to visit Turku!


Mikko, thursday at 15:45

I'm eager to see the exhibition. I'm 30 years old straight man from Turku and I actually didn't know how remarkable artist, culture influencer and art pieces we were talking about. Now I have a good chance to get to know this artist.

Jari, thursday at 18:11
Fantastic! Thank you Turku european culture capital.
First time I saw Tom of Finland drawings in a magazine illustration in London in the end of the 70's. At that time I didn't think that oh, here's some finnish fine art, it was just good "art for use" for gay men. I'll definitely visit the exhibition."
 
(In the side picture one example of the illustration at "Jari" mentioned. Copyrights Tom of Finland Foundation, LA/USA)

The discussion proves that it's really a good time to organize this major exhibition now. It will have an important task also in a pedagogical sence: the unknown and threatning might become familiar and even interesting, tempting - "Tom's homecoming" worth celebrating. I'm so happy and thrilled that all these finnish and especially Turku and Kaarina based people have concidered the exhibition news worth commenting and many seem to wait eagerly for the exhibition to open. I am too!

PS. I'm actively updating Tom of Finland Retrospective-facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/tom2011, all Tom-fans can follow the page news even without logging to facebook themselves.

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