Tom of Finland Foundation’s “Packed for Pleasure” Takes on Sex, Art and Censorship in Paris
Paris Fashion Week is getting a little more provocative. Tom of Finland Foundation presents Packed for Pleasure, a new group exhibition exploring nearly a century of art, desire and censorship—and the creative ways artists have continued to make and share work when society tells them not to. Curated by the Foundation’s Chief Curator Brooke Wise and presented with support from Pornhub, the exhibition brings together work and archival material from Tom of Finland, Jean Cocteau, Man Ray, Bruce Nauman, Mike Kelley & Paul McCarthy alongside contemporary artists including Violet Chachki, Drake Carr, Leigh Ledare, Killion Huang, Nicolo Gentile, Robert Martin and Emma Stern.
Rather than treating censorship as something relegated to the past, Packed for Pleasure connects the coded circulation of queer and erotic imagery throughout the 20th century with today’s battles over content moderation, age verification and deplatforming. Archival material includes Jean Cocteau’s Le Livre blanc and Physique Pictorial, the mid-century publication that helped introduce Tom of Finland’s work to American audiences....