Physique pictorial. 16 issues featuring covers by Tom of Finland

A$550 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Los Angeles : AMG, 1961 1976. 16 issues of Physique Pictorial all featuring covers designed by legendary gay artist Touko Valio Laaksonen (known by the pseudonym Tom of Finland , each issue octavo, pictorial wrappers, each approximately pp. 32, black and white photographs of male nudes. The breakthrough publication which saw Touko Laaksonen s dirty little pictures exposed to a broader gay readership. Laaksonen submitted his drawings to publisher Bob Mizer simply signed as Tom . Mizer saw the envelopes had arrived from Finland, so credited the works to Tom of Finland thus creating the pseudonym which would last through Laaksonen s career. While much of Tom of Finland s early career was spent under the covers , this pioneering erotic gay artist is now celebrated internationally for his genre defining subject matter and quality of execution. Tom of Finland s gay erotic drawings were recently the subject of a major retrospective at Kiasma, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland. Physique Pictorial, published by Bob Mizer s Athletic Model Guild (AMG) was the first all-male and all-nude magazine in the United States. It is an example of a beefcake magazine which published images of athletic and attractive young men primarily for a homosexual clientele, commencing prior to the relaxation of pornography laws in the 1960s, and continuing through to . Interestingly, the magazine editors are well aware of the controversial nature of the magazine s content, and a number of art

• Binding: Hardcover

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