There is a wealth of research literature on Tom of Finland, George Quaintance, or Robert Mapplethorpe, yet no one has previously examined these artists specifically through the lens of leather. Gottfried Lorenz, historian and author, and Peter Suelau, historian, sociologist, and MSC member, offer in Lederkunst, published in 2024 by Himmelstürmer Verlag, an overview of the history of the leather scene, of Hamburg’s MSC, and of its artistic representation.

The leather scene emerged amid the flourishing economic growth of the postwar period and its burgeoning subcultures, as the authors vividly describe in the introduction. They then turn, in the chapter “The MSC Hamburg e.V.,” to a comprehensive account of the club’s history. The Motorsport Club (MSC for short) Hamburg e.V. was founded on 30 July 1974. Motorsport was the starting point of the leather scene but served above all as a social cover. Among the MSC’s main tasks was organizing the annual Leather Meeting, first held on 10 and 11 August 1973 in Hamburg. The club regularly organized trips for its members to network with other international groups. Since its refounding in 2013, the MSC has also opened up to women. It has likewise moved away from its strict dress code toward fetishwear, which now also includes rubber, for example. The historical overview is followed by a detailed 16-page timeline covering key developments in the leather scene, particularly in Hamburg, as well as dates relating to the exhibited artists — exclusively. This is followed by a catalogue section on art and the leather scene, which forms the main body of the book.

The great role models of leather art are Tom of Finland (1920–1991) and his older trailblazer George Quaintance (1902–1957), who decisively shaped the visual memory of the genre and to whom all subsequent artists repeatedly refer back. Gerhard Pohl (1931–1993) and Günter Henzler (1933–2005) were longtime friends and co-founders of the Hamburg MSC. The self-taught Pohl earned his living through advertising photography and opened Hamburg’s first leather bar, the Loreley Bar, in 1973. His black-and-white photographs are distinctive in their own right yet still show the influence of Tom of Finland, whose drawings he had seen in the US magazine Physique Pictorial. This prompted him to travel to Finland in 1968, where he became friends with the artist. It was also Pohl who secured commissions for Laaksonen — Tom of Finland’s real name — in Hamburg, thereby contributing significantly to his popularization in the Federal Republic and beyond.

Gerhard Pohl was one of the many victims of the AIDS epidemic in 1993. Günter Henzler, like Pohl, earned his living as a graphic designer. He became particularly well known for his posters for the Leather Meeting, which he designed until 2004 and which are strongly reminiscent of Tom of Finland’s style. He also created the MSC logo, whose acronym he likewise used as the basis for his artist name, Martin S. Cool. In the catalogue, these two artists are juxtaposed with, at times, more recent works by artists including Lars Deike (b. 1963), the Denmark-born and -trained Erling Viktor (b. 1968), the Argentine, Spain-based artist Juan Carlos Di Pane (b. 1971), Jürgen Drese (b. 1940), French photographer Ralf Marsault (b. 1957), Nils Bollenbach (b. 2001), Nico Below (b. 1977), Rex (1943–2024), and Robert Mapplethorpe (1946–1989).

This is followed by a chapter on “Günter Henzler / Martin S. Cool as Aesthete” and a chapter titled “A City Tour of Hamburg for Leathermen,” which includes a list of recommended locations for the leather scene in Hamburg. The chapter “Hans Eppendorfer’s Book Der Ledermann spricht with Hubert Fichte and the Hamburg Leather Scene” addresses the controversial 1980 book, which was fiercely debated within Hamburg’s leather scene at the time. The book concludes with “Leather, S/M, and Male-Male Prostitution,” topics which, according to the authors, should be mentioned rather than swept under the rug in a catalogue for a leather exhibition. The appendix reproduces three historical newspaper articles.

Lederkunst is not a purely art-historical exhibition catalogue. Nevertheless, the descriptions of the artists’ works and careers reveal commonalities such as a closeness to advertising aesthetics, similar body types, and a tendency toward black-and-white imagery. Alongside a few minor errors, the book lacks citable literature, particularly regarding the art itself. This is offset, however, by the strong research into the club’s history. Overall, the catalogue offers a good overview of the international leather scene and the history of the Hamburg MSC, and includes impressive visual material by artists such as Pohl and Henzler — artists who are, in part, nearly forgotten and deserve rediscovery by art-historical research.