Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen, Finnish. 1920 – 1991) is widely regarded as one of the 20th century’s most influential artists for his revolutionary representation of the male figure. His drawings of fantastically muscled men engrossed in acts of homoerotic desire comprise one of the most inventive portrayals of the human body in modern times. These pictures of gay men as virile, confident, and unashamed—equally radical for their near-illicit, underground distribution—originated an empowering queer iconography and liberating spirit that has marked popular culture, art, fashion and human rights.