The sexual libertine Kake was, for many gay men, their first introduction to the work of Tom of Finland.
Shown in a series of 26, serialized storyboards (each being a suite of 20 works each),
Kake is the embodiment of pleasurable lust, of a sexual abandonment that is rare
to see in our more prudent , fin-de-siecle era of restraint.
For the 4th ABSOLUT Los Angeles International, Mark Moore Gallery will present three complete Kake stories, all of which were recently recovered by the Tom of Finland Foundation, the non-profit organization established to protect the artist’s work and to promote erotic art.
Concurrent with the Mark Moore Gallery exhibition this Summer, Tom of Finland’s work will be shown extensively in Europe - James Van Damme Gallery, Brussels; the Jyvaskyla Art Museum , Finland; Tom of Finland’s first exhibition in London will be presented at Cabinet Gallery in the Winter/Spring of 1999/2000.
Locally, Tom of Finland will also be included in Highways 10th anniversary exhibition
“bad boys...” through August 28.
Tom of Finland will also be included in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s millenium exhibition Made in California ; LACMA acquired a work by Tom of Finland in 1997, which was presented shortly thereafter in the exhibition Master Drawings from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.