Whether you know his name or not, you have absolutely seen the work of Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen, 1920-1991). His depictions of thick, muscled bodies with their bulging thighs and arms; high pectorals and bubble butts; and sweet Teutonic faces playing the role of every desirable type of macho man under the sun have exaggerated the male ideal to comical proportions.
Read MoreThe artist’s choice of material makes the nature of tapestries a metaphor for man’s own nature, in which there is a struggle between control and spontaneity, the sacred and profane. The skilled art of creating a flokati rug is paired with Betbeze’s destruction of it, through both chemical processes (burning with fire and acid) and the careful act of sewing. The role of the artist is to create, but it is also to destroy the limits of what defines their medium. These paintings do precisely that, leaving the wall on which they are hung to spread at the feet of the viewer, the surface of fur and fiber a study in color and texture. Paired with the small, blackened sculpture, there is reverence to the elements as well as a mastery of them.
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