ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives presents Art
& Physique Circa Bob & Tom at the ONE Gallery in West Hollywood,
an exhibition exploring the social and historical context surrounding
erotic art and physique photography during the 1940s, 50s and 60s on
the occasion of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s retrospective
Bob
Mizer & Tom of Finland.
ONE’s exhibition explores how producers and consumers
of physique photography negotiated silence and censorship to carve out
a space for homoerotic content on the sidelines of dominant culture.
Using photographer Bob Mizer, founder of the American Model Guild (AMG),
and Touko Laaksonen, aka “Tom of Finland,” as a fulcrum,
the exhibition looks back to those who preceded the two, influential
contemporaries, and more broadly examines how the circulation of underground
erotic materials contributed to the rise to queer culture.
Drawn from the collections of ONE Archives at the USC
Libraries, the largest LGBTQ repository in the world, with additional
materials on loan from the Tom of Finland Foundation, the exhibition
includes numerous bodybuilding and beefcake magazines from the period,
as well as original artworks, collages, primary documents, and a range
of related ephemera.
Art & Physique Circa Bob & Tom is organized
by David Frantz, Curator at ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives.
ONE
Archives Gallery & Museum
Hours: Thursday 4:00 - 8:00 PM,
Friday, Saturday & Sunday 1:00 - 5:00 PM
Closed Monday through Wednesday. Suggested donation of
$5.00 to help fund the archive.
626 N. Robertson Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069 · Map
· 323.546.9299
Enter gallery on El Tovar Place.
ONE Archives Gallery and Museum Website
Event Page