Sharp’s Story
S.R. Sharp, Vice President and curator at the Tom of Finland Foundation, tells the story of his work:
Tom of Finland was born in 1920, soon after the Finnish revolution. At the time, he was known as Touko Laaksonen, and he was encouraged to draw by his mother, who loved arts and crafts. As he grew older, Tom started to create his own masturbatory material by sketching his homoerotic fantasies, which mostly featured blue-collar workers, and he was soon on his way to earning the name that would one day be known worldwide.
In 1957, when Tom started to publish his drawings, they were deemed pornography, and he was paid very little. The publishing industry was not well-regulated at the time, so publishers frequently failed to return the originals, and Tom's art was pirated everywhere. To preserve his work, Tom's friend Durk Dehner offered to help him start a publishing house in the United States. Dehner soon realised the importance of archiving and preserving Tom's work, and the two started the Tom of Finland Foundation in 1984.
Many volunteers were recruited to help with the foundation's archive, and that's where I came in. Durk brought me on as an archivist because of my experience in studio and gallery management, though we all do many things and frequently take up whatever tasks need to be done. For example, for Tom's Centennial in 2020, everyone worked together, wearing many different hats, to ensure the celebration would be a success.
Today, the Tom of Finland Foundation collects, documents, and preserves materials related to Tom of Finland, his life, and his work. We also manage information from many other artists who produce erotic art and documents, and ephemeral materials that reflect the history of queer male culture and movements. Our holdings give context to the creations of queer contemporary life, those who have lived it, and their experiences. As archivists, our job is not to assign value to the materials in our library, archives, or art collections. Rather, our duty is to maintain them so that they can be studied, interpreted, and appreciated by researchers, scholars, and artists — now and into the future.
For more about the Tom of Finland Foundation, check out their blog, subscribe to their YouTube Channel, or follow them on Twitter and Instagram.
Artist Notes
“In this illustration, Sharp is shown doing archival work at his desk. The curated erotic male art on the wall behind him signifies the work the Tom of Finland Foundation supports and promotes. The different shades of blue ink used in the illustration denote the minimum resources with which Tom used to sketch.”
Published Sep 30, 2020
Updated Aug 30, 2023
