Computer Animation Arts

Finnish artist Touko Laaksonen is best known by his pseudonym 'Tom of Finland' - and is famous/infamous for his unapologetic, frequently pornographic depiction of hypermasculinised gay archetypes (the lumberjack, the biker, the sailor, the traffic cop etc.). Unlike J.C. Leyendecker's illustrations , there is nothing subtextual or inferred about the objectification of the male physique in Laaksonen's illustrations. Indeed, I struggled to find examples of his work to showcase here that didn't risk causing offense or crossing a line! In common with photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe , Laaksonen's work divides opinion; for some, he was a mono-thematic purveyor of porn and promulgator of queer cliches, racist myth, permissive sexuality and casual sadomasochism. For others, he was a champion in the struggle by a particular community to materialise, whose positive images of 'the happy beefcake' challenged the equation often made between homosexuality an...

Camp, inescapably homoerotic, and really rather wonderful, I share with you the work of Joseph Christian Leyendecker. " Born in Germany, Leyendecker and his family moved to America in 1882. He attended the Chicago Art Institute and, along with his younger brother Frank, was enrolled in the Academie Julian in Paris. The brothers returned to Chicago in 1899 and set up their studio on South Michigan Ave. Joe soon received his first commission for a Saturday Evening Post cover, and would later produce 322 covers for the magazine. Leyendecker also did covers for Collier's Magazine, and by 1900 had moved with his brother and sister to New York City to begin an enormously successful career as a commercial artist and illustrator. His client list included Kuppenheimer Suits, Interwoven Socks, Kellogg's and, most notably, Arrow shirt collars. The Arrow Collar Man-a male answer to the Gibson Girl-came to define the fashionable American male during the early decades of the twentieth...