"Laaksonen's historic Los Angeles home was not only where the artist lived and worked over the last decade of his life, but also the nexus of the gay biker counterculture - in some ways, a setting where the artist's work could come to life."
"Tom House is more than a portrait of a home—beneath its stylish imagery, the book seems to have two urgent missions."
"...the 256-page volume provides an armchair equivalent of a private tour into a home that has served as a fraternity house and den of iniquity, as well as a haven of quotidian (and forbidden) pleasures."
"...this book shows the totality of one man's vision, and his dedication to a life where sexual desires are not hidden but celebrated."
"Walking through the house sometimes will make you laugh, giggle and even perhaps blush. You may get a lump in your throat or even in your pants.”
"It's a gathering place, a safe place, a spiritual experience, an idea. It's visually breathtaking. I had always thought it would make an amazing book."
"Today, Rizzoli releases "Tom House: Tom of Finland in Los Angeles", a tour of the nearly 2,500 works that are housed there, and a peek into the subculture that still surrounds the Finnish artist today."
"Ultimately, Tom House is a destination best experienced on the page or in person: part frathouse, part bunker of Bohemia, part noncomformist bulwark. At Tom House, pleasure is always a moral imperative and life itself is a form of activism."
"The book is an immersive glimpse into the private, domestic world of one of the 20th-century's most revolutionary artists."
"Tom House is a delicious peek inside the legendary former residence of Finnish erotic illustrator and painter of all your gay fantasies, Touko Laaksonen."
"Erotica abounds in the house, but the home is founded on a strong sense of connection. Tom's house, as demonstrated by its shades of the hot, the warm, and the cool, is indeed a home."
"If you hadn't guessed from his artwork, Laaksone's rousing abode really rams it home: that boy loved cock. The male genitalia is revered in each and every corner of what is officially known as Tom House, 1421 Laveta Terrace; drawings, paintings, photographs, massive sculpted ones on the fireplace."
"#MustHave! The book is edited by Michael Reynolds, and offers an immersive glimpse into the private, domestic world of Tom of Finland, one of the twentieth century's most revolutionary artists."
"Michael Reynolds' expansive new book TOM HOUSE: TOM OF FINLAND IN LOS ANGELES, also contains a lively essay by Architectural Digest's west coast editor Mayer Rus, offering an immersive glimpse into the private world of an unabashedly gay artist and his eclectic taste for both high art and camp."
"Schön! catches up with Michael Reynolds to find out what led him to curating the 'interiors book that you can jerk off to.'”
"Through the robustly illustrated Tom House lovers of beefcake and real estate can endlessly wander the rooms of this one-of-a-kind property, from drawing room to dungeon."
"[The] new book, Tom House: Tom of Finland in Los Angeles – edited by creative director Michael Reynolds and photographed by Martyn Thompson – offers a tour of the property, which has been preserved in all its glory since Laaksonen's death."
"The book explores each room in the house, all crammed with works and artefacts that explore every dimension of Tuoko's life, giving insight into what inspired him artistically, and, of course, carnally."
"Despite what the drawings might suggest, the house is surprisingly domestic, but not without its flairs: mostly lots of male genitalia."
"For the first time, Tom House is presented in a picture book, Tom House: Tom of Finland in Los Angeles, edited by Architectural Digest contributor Michael Reynolds, and beautifully photographed by Martyn Thompson. Here, we go on an intimate tour of the artist's art-filled rooms, where black leather and phallic memorabilia rule." |
