Always curious how people feel about this stuff. What are your thoughts on Tom of Finland? Do you find it iconic or tacky? Are there any other gay erotic artworks you like - George Quaintance, Etienne, Harry Bush?
I've always wanted to see the Leslie-Lohman collection.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | July 9, 2025 4:13 PM |
Tacky as fuck. Even as a young gayling I thought dicks hanging everywhere was just tasteless.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | July 9, 2025 4:17 PM |
Here is a recent show of ToF drawings. If you click to the link you can visit some peruse the drawings. There are sketches and a fun complete drawings. Really kinky stuff, not his mainstream. I really enjoy Tom of Finland. It's a good combination of sexy, campy, and iconic.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | July 9, 2025 4:19 PM |
Some of it is very cartoonish, but I enjoy the works of the artists and craftsmen you cite, OP. It may be because I'm into kinky sex the works celebrate.
But for gay erotic art, I really appreciate Paul Cadmus.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | July 9, 2025 4:20 PM |
I was going to mention Paul Cadmus, r4. He was the superior artist, imo.
I never liked ToF because it seemed very vanilla and unsexy to me. Just an endless parade of bodybuilders with 12 inch cocks. No appreciation for the different ways a man can be sexy.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | July 9, 2025 4:25 PM |
I'm glad I got to see the George Quaintance exhibit in LA. I was surprised at how massive the paintings were.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | July 9, 2025 4:25 PM |
It's pin-up art like Vargas and Petty.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | July 9, 2025 4:34 PM |
It made quite the impression on an 18 year old in the late 60s.
Younger guys have no idea how unavailable "erotic gay art" mags / books were back in the day.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | July 9, 2025 4:35 PM |
"Daddy and the Muscle Academy" is a great doc worth checking out
by Anonymous | reply 11 | July 9, 2025 4:38 PM |
R8 I met him at one of the TOF shows in LA. Super nice guy. RIP. All his work is done hand and watercolor.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | July 9, 2025 4:40 PM |
If I were wealthy and had a pool and gardens I would have a giant Quaintance in the pool house.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | July 9, 2025 4:45 PM |
Beyond tacky.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | July 9, 2025 4:47 PM |
Terry Miller.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | July 9, 2025 4:47 PM |
Ridiculous. Fake machismo. Once they open their mouth, purse fall out.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | July 9, 2025 4:49 PM |
Quaintance is more my style. Absurdly ridiculous, "dimestore glamour."
by Anonymous | reply 17 | July 9, 2025 4:51 PM |
by Anonymous | reply 19 | July 9, 2025 5:02 PM |
I love ToF and Harry Bush. I own several books of erotic art are now collectors items valued $500-$700. I wouldn’t hang the art on my walls but I love flipping through the books. I’m also an artist and learn a lot from their work.
Some contemporary artists like Joe Phillips, Mark Beard and Kent Lau are really talented too.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | July 9, 2025 5:32 PM |
I never much cared for Kirwan because the faces on his creations were kind of monster-ish.
Always liked Harry Bush. Josman too, though the narratives were sometimes icky. Most other artists were not my cup of tea.
by Anonymous | reply 21 | July 9, 2025 5:37 PM |
PS there was a thread here before about Maurice Vellekoop, who's had some hot erotic sketches.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | July 9, 2025 5:38 PM |
R2 = Proud Philistine
by Anonymous | reply 23 | July 9, 2025 5:43 PM |
R16 = Unaware he's not the market, conflating eroticism with humor with "not his kind of pornography, because too gay."
A lot of them here, and apparently everywhere.
MAGAy taste, rather like the Nazi embrace of "noble, masculine virility" against "homosexualist degradation and perversion."
by Anonymous | reply 24 | July 9, 2025 5:47 PM |
Comedienne Margaret Cho is known for her impressive collection of erotic and gay art, which includes nude portraits of Chris Isaak.
by Anonymous | reply 25 | July 9, 2025 6:02 PM |
The Hun Comics were the best if your fantasies were muscle, jocks, college, black and asian studs!
by Anonymous | reply 26 | July 9, 2025 6:48 PM |
Those Chris Isaak paintings/sketches are hot.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | July 9, 2025 6:53 PM |
tof is excellent.
especially thru the decades and examining how photography-advances are reflected in his skill.
so prolific, tof could potentially break a.i.-animation boundaries
by Anonymous | reply 28 | July 9, 2025 6:54 PM |
R10 - I agree with you, although I'm a bit younger. I remember coming across this in the late 80s and the images seemed so gay-affirming - handsome men with great bodies, smiling and being gay.
Outside of porn which was hit or miss - there weren't images like this available. God knows there weren't hardly any gay men portrayed in films or TV - you really had to hunt for it.
Now it looks over-the-top and silly. People don't remember pre-internet how hard it was to get your hands on to ANYTHING gay, even in big cities. Sure you eventually found the gay bookstore but it was still not a great selection - and a lot of porn.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | July 9, 2025 6:58 PM |
I won't want it displayed in my home. However, some extreme gays could want it. I think those who do might be in the adult entertainment industry, came out later in life, of people who are just consumed with everything gay (and those extremes that come with it).
by Anonymous | reply 31 | July 9, 2025 7:05 PM |
It always struck me as silly and occasionally funny, but I’ve seldom found it sexy. I’d never want to see it on my walls.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | July 9, 2025 7:07 PM |
[quote] Comedienne Margaret Cho
You’re being very generous.
by Anonymous | reply 33 | July 9, 2025 7:12 PM |
The term “art” used here is generous. Cartoons maybe.
by Anonymous | reply 34 | July 9, 2025 7:22 PM |
I like Paul Cadmus
by Anonymous | reply 35 | July 9, 2025 7:23 PM |
Pavel Tchelitchew (1898-1957)
Formerly owned by Geoffrey Beene.
by Anonymous | reply 36 | July 9, 2025 7:29 PM |
The Hun and Etienne produced raunchier material than Tom of Finland, in my opinion. But Tom certainly opened the way for them to do so.
by Anonymous | reply 37 | July 9, 2025 7:38 PM |
There was an artist who was always in Advocate Men in the 90s. Very traditional drawings, but very hot.
by Anonymous | reply 38 | July 9, 2025 7:48 PM |
I've always liked TOF just because it looked like the guys were having fun. You never saw happy gay guys in media when I was growing up. Even in porn they always looked miserable.
But I adore Harry Bush's art! He really knew how to draw sexy men.
by Anonymous | reply 39 | July 9, 2025 8:05 PM |
Ironically, there are virtually no men in Finland who look like the men in his work.
(For proof, watch any Finnish tv series or films).
by Anonymous | reply 40 | July 9, 2025 8:35 PM |
R40 - I saw the Tom of Finland film - there was actually a film about his life in Finland, how gays were arrested and his arrival in LA and how it opened a whole new world for him. I recommend it.
But IIRC, Tom was influenced by German WW2 wehrmacht uniforms and motorcycle culture.
He was almost arrested for even drawing these things and circulating one or two pieces among gay men in Berlin. So even drawing this shit got him in trouble.
Regardless of what our modern eyes view it - this was daring - even illegal, groundbreaking and liberating for gay men, way before gay liberation. It should be viewed with that lens.
It took a lot of risk and balls to make these images - as foreign and ridiculous as that may sound today.
by Anonymous | reply 41 | July 10, 2025 4:08 AM |
Rex was another artist who I like. A lot of his illustrations appeared in gay magazines.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | July 10, 2025 3:38 PM |
JC Leyendecker was gay and did a lot of hot (though not overtly pornographic) illustrations
by Anonymous | reply 44 | July 10, 2025 3:46 PM |