Noel Martin, Ralston Crawford as WWII Camoufleurs

Noel Martin exhibition poster

Canadian-born American artist Ralston Crawford (1906-1978) is usually said to have been a Precisionist, with the result that his paintings (and photographs) are typically grouped with those of Joseph Stella, Charles Demuth and Charles Sheeler. Until recently, I hadn’t realized that, early in his career, Crawford worked as an illustrator at the Walt Disney Studio. Later, in the 1930s to early 1940s, he taught at the Art Academy of Cincinnati.

In 1942, at age 36, Crawford received a World War II draft notice. As an experienced photographer, he asked to be assigned to photography for the US Navy. But when he failed to meet the Navy’s requirements, he applied for the camouflage division of the US Engineers Corps. He despised basic training, so much so that he later said that “the enemy was not Hitler, or Mussolini” but what he described as those “those miserable, stupid and sometimes vicious people” who trained recruits “in modern assasination techniques.” As a result, he asked to be assigned to the Weather Division of the Visual Presentation Unit (producing training materials, such as instructional drawings, models, and filmstrips).

While teaching in Cincinnati, one of Crawford students had been a young man named Noel Martin (1922-2009). From 1942-45, Martin served in the US Army as a specialist in camouflage and information. After the war, Martin was asked to design various information brochures for the Cincinnati Art Museum. He learned about the printing process from a craftsman at the museum, and then gradually taught himself the rudiments of graphic design, a profession not then taught in art schools because (in Martin’s words) of “art school snobbery.” Other prominent graphic designers and illustrators who were associated with the Art Academy of Cincinnati at about the same time were Malcolm Grear and Charley Harper.

Beginning in 1986, I taught illustration and graphic design at the Art Academy of Cincinnati until 1990. Noel Martin had more or less retired as the museum's designer, but he was still in the area. 

By that time, I had published a number of articles and one book on art and camouflage. When I learned that Martin had been a WWII camoufleur, I arranged to meet with him for lunch. We talked about his camouflage service, and I jotted down some cryptic notes. I no longer know their whereabouts (although I have them somewhere), but one thing that I do recall is that he mentioned several others whom he knew who had also served as camoufleurs. Of those I clearly remember, one was Victor Christ-Janer (1915-2008). 

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RELATED LINKS    

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus