deformed ships like papier-maché caves of polar bears

Until recently I had no idea that the architect Le Corbusier had ever mentioned camouflage in his published writings, albeit he was interested in various aspects of Cubism. But I have now run across an excerpt from the book that he and the artist Ozenfant wrote in 1918, called Apres le cubism, in which they talk about camouflaged ships. 

Above is a public domain photograph of him by an unknown photographer, titled Le Corbusier at Shodhan House in India, 1955. I also used it recently on the opening page of an essay titled "Occupant of a House by Le Corbusier" in my recent book of essays, Dreams of Fields: Memory Traces of Iowa's Past (Ice Cube Press, 2025).

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Amédée Ozenfant and Charles-Edouard Jeanneret [birthname of Le Corbusier], Apres le cubism. Paris: Edition des Commentaires, 1918, p. 30.

…There is an organic beauty in the structure of a transatlantic ship; we are indifferent to it; but here comes the war, suddenly bringing us camouflaged ships, which instantly become the unexpected theme of the "renewal of the subject" and "originality of vision"! Poor magnificent ships, with wonderfully balanced structures, with vast architecture, gleaming and pristine under their pure varnish, they are admired because of their camouflage, deformed, hilarious, collapsed in the surrounding landscape, unrecognizable, resembling the papier-mâché cave of the polar bears at Hagenbeck, like stage sets for shooting galleries; we find ourselves in Parade; from there we draw easy entertainment, easy decor, easy arabesques, everything that cancels beauty!

The novelty of the subjects does not renew painting; there is only a known variation on a new theme, something to distinguish oneself through the apparent oddity of the subject.

This is not progress; it is only a modality of naturalism or impressionism, under cubist camouflage.

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