'His mission was to spread joy and spread that sense of freedom of expression,' said Durk Dehner, one of the cofounders of the Tom of Finland Foundation. The drawings - which were illicit for most of his lifetime, as being gay was illegal in Finland until 1971 - also inspired the aesthetic foundation for modern popular gay culture, depicting men in roles that were forbidden at the time in various ways, whether it was serving in the military or having an open relationship. Tom of Finland was a Finnish artist who was well known for his underground erotic drawings of men, which he made from the 1940s until his death in 1991. It can be hard to remember that there was a time, not so long ago, when depictions of gay men were exceedingly rare.
