WARNING! If you look further than this post you will see sexually explicated illustrations. For four decades Touko Laaksonen, a Finnish artist notable for his stylized fetish illustrations of gay men, become the twentieth century’s most influential producer of gay pornographic images. He created over 3.500 illustrations. His style in the late 50’s early 60’s partly influenced by the U.S. censorship codes that restricted the depiction of “overt” homosexual acts. His work was published in the beefcake genre that began in the 30’s. By the end of the 60’s the beefcake market collapsed, but his work changed attitudes about male frontal nudity in magazines and movies. His most prominent work was a comic series called Kake, which included the archetypes of lumberjacks, policemen, sailors, bikers and leather men. Just think of the popular late 70’s music group “The Village People.”
Wait, now I kinda want to know what the plot was for the comic. Nevermind, I googled that shit and the whole thing is pretty straight forward. although I wonder its overall impact on stereotypes of gay men?
ReplyDeleteWhat caught me of his piece is the gradient of shadowing in his illustration. Its perfect, in terms of capturing that realistic 3d form. And the backdrop shadow of the figures behind them really tells you where the light source is. Amazing detail on the facial hair of the last picture, kind of look like ashton kutcher, if he was going for that, perfect.
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