TOM OF FINLAND: Male Masterworks at Miami Beach's World Erotic Art Museum

TOM OF FINLAND: MALE MASTERWORKS, DEFINITIVE COLLECTION OF THE PIONEERING CREATOR OF HOMOEROTIC ART, TO OPEN EXTENSIVE EXHIBIT OF DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS SATURDAY, APRIL 14 THROUGH JULY 31 AT MIAMI BEACH'S WORLD EROTIC ART MUSEUM

Tom of Finland, born Touko Laaksonen in Kaarina, Finland, who came to be known throughout the international art world for his extraordinary homoerotic drawings depicting men at ease and equally at play, will be the subject of a major exhibit, TOM OF FINLAND: Male Masterworks, opening Saturday, April 14, at 8 P.M. at Naomi Wilzig's World Erotic Art Museum for Miami Beach Gay Pride.

Art collector Volker Morlock, who has been involved with the Tom of Finland Foundation since 1991, editor of the anthology, "Tom of Finland Retrospective III," and consultant for Taschen Publishing on the books "Quaintance" and "Tom of Finland XXL," will be special guest speaker at the opening night reception.

Raised in a farm country that was still rough and wild, Finland who came from a family of school teachers and studied art in Helsinki, was drawn to the muscular frontiersmen who became the inspiration for his drawings. It was following his release from the army after World War II that Touko was urged by advertising colleagues to submit his drawings to the American body building magazine, Physique Pictorial. The 1957 cover story of a laughing lumberjack became a sensation establishing his name as "Tom of Finland."

With his work generating invitations to exhibit in museums and galleries worldwide, in 1984, Finland and friend Durk Dehner founded Tom of Finland Foundation (ToFF), owner of several paintings which will also be on view. ToFF was founded as a nonprofit Educational Archive to protect, preserve and promote erotic art and to encourage healthier, more tolerant attitudes towards sexuality. Today, following major exhibitions throughout the world, for sheer homoeroticism, the finely detailed body of work of Tom of Finland for which he became famous, will never be surpassed.

The World Erotic Art Museum is located at 1205 Washington Avenue. Open Monday thru Thursday, 11 A.M.-10 P.M.; Friday and Saturday, 11 A.M. to Midnight. Tickets are $15, no one under18 admitted. Further information is available by calling 305-532-9336; or via www.weam.com.

IMAGE: TOM OF FINLAND (Finnish, 1920 – 1991), Untitled, 1965, Graphite on paper, Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection #65.08, © 1965 Tom of Finland Foundation, Inc.