Barnyard Camouflage

The artists who were World War I camoufleurs didn't always know what they were doing. As one of them, Henry Berry, said later in a memoir titled Make the Kaiser Dance (Garden City NY: Doubleday, 1978), "None of us, including the captain, knew a goddamn thing about camouflage, but it got us out of all the drilling and what have you" (p. 206). Shown here are two examples of American camouflage in France: In the top photo, a small shed has been "camouflaged" by covering it with a spurious barnyard mural of sorts, including a very large chicken. The bottom photo shows an actual cow tied up to graze on what looks like the ground, but is actually the roof of the concealed quarters beneath it. Public domain news photos from The Art World (January 1918).

Women Camouflage Artists

Pictured above is a construction view of a World War I non-ship called the USS Recruit, built in Union Square in New York for use as a landlocked recruiting station. After completion, it was painted battleship gray, but later, at the suggestion of camouflage artist Everett L. Warner, it was repainted in brightly-colored dazzle camouflage. Recently, we found Warner's recommendation of this in an article he wrote titled "Marine Camouflage: Various Methods of Protective Coloration Used to Reduce Insurance Risks" in The Bush Magazine of Factory and Shipping Economy (January 15, 1918. pp. 12-14). He writes—

Its [the Recruit's] coat of Navy gray is well calculated to make it inconspicuous in these particular surroundings. But is this good strategy? Decidedly not. If we follow the proper practice of studying each vessel as a separate problem we immediately realize that the prime purpose of this vessel is to attract attention, and if camouflaged in the bright colors and strong contrast of the dazzle style it would be a nine days wonder in New York, and would be visited and discussed by countless thousands. In all seriousness I present this suggestion to the recruiting arm of the service as well worthy of their consideration.

Soon after (as documented in Isabel L. Smith, "Camouflage in the United States Navy" in Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine Vol LV No 8, August 1921), members of the Women's Reserve Camouflage Corps were given the task of camouflaging the ship. According to Smith—

This was a night's work for the women and was done at the request of the Navy to further recruiting. The camouflage design was worked out in the classrooms of the Corps. One day at sundown New Yorkers saw the ship a tame, neutral gray. The next morning it wore a wild, fantastic design of many colors.

Camouflage Isn't Camouflage

From Carol Burke, Camp All-American, Hanoi Jane, and the High-and-Tight: Gender, Folklore and Changing Military Culture. Boston: Beacon Press, 2004, p. 88—

Camouflage no longer camouflages. The point is not to blend into the landscape but to stand out as a guerrilla-in-waiting. For white supremacists, store-bought BDUs [battle dress uniforms] lend a spurious authenticity to ragtag renegade activities and permit them to see themselves as a vigilant militia organized in defense of fundamental American values.

Sarcasm as Camouflage

From Don Hawkins, Flambeau at Darkcorp.com. Kregel Publications, 1999, p. 98—

Like tart cherries in a cherry pie, humor is what gives sarcasm its unique torch. Otherwise, it would simply be called anger. There's nothing wrong with anger, of course, but sarcasm provides our clients with the opportunity to become angry, even vindictive, without appearing that way. It's a lot like the carefully patterned camouflage jackets some of your clients wear when they go hunting or to war.

Gestalt Theory, Cubism and Camouflage

Above Cover of Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye by Harvard psychologist and art theorist Rudolf Arnheim (1904-2007). Having studied with Max Wertheimer and Wolfgang Köhler at the University of Berlin, he was the last surviving student of the founders of Gestalt psychology.

*  *  *

Max Wertheimer and Pablo Picasso were contemporaries: The former, who co-founded Gestalt theory with Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler, was born in 1880; while the Spanish painter, who invented cubism with Georges Braque, was born in 1881. Both Gestalt theory and cubism emerged in the years that preceded World War I. Gestaltist Fritz Heider does not suggest that Wertheimer and Picasso were acquainted, or even that they knew about each other's discoveries, but only that "the perceptual phenomena with which they were dealing were the same" (Heider 1973, 71). However, it also seems likely, as he points out, that both realized that the factors that they were exploring were used in military camouflage. More…

Emotional Camouflage

From Paul Ekman, Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage. NY: W.W. Norton, 2009, p. 33—

The best way to conceal strong emotions is with a mask. Covering the face or part of it with one's hand or turning away from the person one is talking to usually can't be done without giving the lie away. The best mask is a false emotion. It not only misleads, but it is the best camouflage. It is terribly hard to keep the face impassive or the hands inactive when an emotion is felt strongly. Looking unemotional, cool, or neutral is the hardest appearance to maintain when emotions are felt. It is much easier to put on a pose, to stop or counter with another set of actions those actions that are expressions of the felt emotion.

Camouflaged Pigeons

 

In reading about this, we were reminded of Jerzy Kosinski's novel, The Painted Bird, but in this case the birds were not literally painted. On page 81 of the January 1941 issue of Popular Science (as shown above), it was reported that retired US Army Captain Ray R. Delhauer, an expert on carrier pigeons, had been breeding them to be disruptively patterned and thereby better camouflaged. These birds were used to transport secret messages, which were placed inside a small capsule, inserted into the bird's crop, and retrieved by a gentle massage when the bird had completed its mission.

Anonymous WWI Ship Camouflage

A participant in World War I was a British (presumably Canadian) soldier with the initials JM who was also an amateur artist. He served in France and Belgium with the Royal Horse and Field Artillery in 1917-18. Two volumes of his watercolor paintings and pen-and-ink drawings have survived (130 works total), and are among the holdings of the Special Collections Library at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, where they have been digitized and can now be viewed online. Of particular relevance to the history of camouflage is the cover of the first volume (shown here), which includes a full-color caricature of a dazzle-painted ship.

Cultural Camouflage

These are thought-provoking excerpts from Kristofer Hansson's essay "Camouflage" in Orvar Löfgren and Richard R. Wilk, eds., Off the Edge: Experiments in Cultural Analysis. Ethnologia Europaea, Vol 35. Museum Tusculanum Press, 2006—

In cultural camouflage one has to identify these sharp edges, the behavior, traits or ideas that are not accepted as normal, and mask or obscure them. The individual must learn to know when it is important to blur these edges—which can be either a conscious or unconscious process.

We all have bodily and psychological characteristics that we don't want people to know about. To protect ourselves we use different strategies to blur and hide those unwanted qualities under a surface of acceptable characteristics and qualities. This transformation is sometimes an everyday mundane action allowing us to blend into different social settings. Most of the time we imitate a typical group member and merge into a larger group. Examples include dressing like others, trying to talk about the same topics, and so forth. This is something we often do without any reflection…

Camouflage strategies are constantly at work in everyday life when you have an illness or handicap that you don't want others to know about. With the use of the military metaphor we can understand that an illness creates, in different ways, sharp edges, features that stand out. To use a camouflage strategy is to break up these sharp edges so that the boundaries between oneself and the surrounding background of normal or healthy bodies is blurred.

Thayer's Pheasant

Shown here are three stages in a demonstration of the protective coloration (or natural camouflage) of a pheasant, as devised by American artists  and naturalists Abbott H. Thayer and his son Gerald H. Thayer. These and other artifacts were exhibited by the Thayers as instructive lessons at various schools and museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago. Following World War I (c1919-1920), these were also reproduced in popular US magazines. The top image shows the disruptive surface pattern on a pheasant, as seen against a field of white. In the second image, the same bird is shown in the context of a presumably typical setting—and, of course, voila!, it disappears. The third is an image that we created, to show the pheasant's location in the more or less natural setting above. Like the Thayers' other camouflage demonstrations, these may not offer definitive proof of anything, but they are still quite interesting.

Ghost Army Exhibit and Screening

Fake inflatable tanks and stage production equipment have not been known as popular methods of defense within World War II history, but the University of Michigan will showcase an exhibit that shows these devices as a little-known-but-effective part of the US Armed Forces.

The University of Michigan's Hatcher Undergraduate Library will show a documentary at 7:00 pm March 17, 2010, on the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops [aka the Ghost Army], deployed in Normandy in June 1944. It will be shown along with an exhibit of textual materials and pictures of war experiences. More…

Camouflage as Futurism

The Italian-based artistic, literary and social movement called Futurism (founded c1909 by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti) was in part an equivalent to French Cubism. It is also commonly said that Vorticism (founded by P. Wyndham Lewis and Ezra Pound) was a British variant on Cubism and Futurism. Vorticism is often described as having been linked with World War I British ship camouflage because one of its prominent members, Edward Wadsworth, was a dock officer who supervised the application of dazzle patterns (although it is unlikely that he himself designed such schemes). After the war, he commemorated dazzle painting in a painting and series of woodcuts.

In a typically cryptic statement, Marinetti contended that the Vorticists had appropriated Futurist motifs, without attribution, for use in dazzle camouflage. Here is an excerpt from that text in Marinetti's "Aggressive Noisiness and Russolo's Noise Machines" in R.W. Flint, ed., Marinetti: Selected Writings. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1972, pp. 335-337—

In London where the English Futurist painters [C.R.W.] Nevinson Wyndham Lewis Wadsworth have distinguished themselves for their proposal to camouflage ships by using dynamic Futurist color patterns by that genius the Roman Futurist Giacomo Balla there took place before and after the concert other furious fistfights and encounters that didn't stop me at all but rather were inspiring as I dared explain even though I didn't know English and pronounced the few phrases I did know badly to the rich and well-educated London that mattered persuading them with gestures that they should respect Luigi Russolo's talent…

Shown above are (left) a plaque on the house of the founder of Futurism, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, in Milan, Italy (public domain image); and (right) an Italian Euro coin showing the Futurist sculpture Unique Forms in Continuity of Space by Umberto Boccioni (1913).

Henry Moore on Camouflage Work

From a letter by British sculptor Henry Moore to Arthur Sale, dated October 8, 1939, as published in Alan G. Wilkinson, ed., Henry Moore: Writings and Conversations. Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 2002, p. 133—

…when the time comes that I'm asked, or have got to do something in this war [World War II], I hope it will be something less destructive than taking part in the actual fighting and killing. There ought to be ways of being used even as a sculptor,—in making of splints etc, or jobs connected with plastic surgery,—though the most likely thing I suppose is camouflage work.

Fringed Camouflage

Shown here are two of the patent drawings for camouflaged clothing invented by Douglas N. Hamilton, and registered as US Patent Number 5,010,589, dated April 30, 1991. Intended for hunters or soldiers, it has two advantages that come from its use of removable fringe (see 13) that hangs below the sleeves. One advantage (for hunters) is that scents or lures could be applied to the fringe only, instead of applying them to the main garment. Different scents could be applied to different sets of fringes, and then easily interchanged. In addition, according to the patent's text, the fringe "break[s] up the outline of the human body of the user and thus improves the camouflage of the wearer."

This reminds us of a passage in Eliot Wigginton, Foxfire 5. Garden City NY: Anchor Books, 1979, p. 411—

When asked about their buckskins, Hawk said, "The story is that it [the leather fringe] helped water drain off in a downpour instead of soaking into the cloth, but I don't go along with that…But I believe that one thing that it did do, whether they realized it or not: it helped to break up the silhouette when they were in the woods. I mean, if you were dripping with fringes and things, you would blend in with the woods easier than if you were just a hard silhouette."

Architectural Undesign

From Lawrence Wright, Perspective in Perspective. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983, p. 280—

If architecture is not to give external expression to the main plan forms and the structural method, it verges on camouflage, a form of undesign in which many architects and perspectors have served their country, putting their normal principles into reverse; gamekeepers turned poachers.

A Blotch Among Blotches

From James Elkins, The Object Stares Back: On the Nature of Seeing. NY: Simon and Schuster, 1996, pp. 82-83—

Sometimes I dress to fit in, so that I can blend with the crowd and not attract attention. When I do that I am imagining the world as a picture, and I want to find a place in the picture where I can disappear. As I walk down the sidewalk or enter the conference room, I want to be nothing more than a blotch among other blotches. But on many other occasions I have exactly the opposite effect in mind. I dress in my best clothes, and I make sure I look just right, because I want to make an impression: I need to stand out, I want to be noticed.

Airplane Camouflage

In a post-World War I article on "Aeronautical Camouflage" (Aerial Age Weekly, May 10, 1920, pp. 288-289ff), its author William R. Weigler (who was in charge of camouflage at McCook Field, now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton OH) contends that "The design of aircraft camouflage closely follows…[the] color schemes of the snake or fish. Both are round in form and in general have two distinct systems of coloration, one on the top, a mottled colored pattern and the other on the underside, a light tone of color, blending on the sides so as to eliminate all shadow effects." In one of the photographs accompanying the article (above left), there are four model airplanes, three of which are painted in monochrome khaki, black and clear varnish, while a fourth (to the left of the orange dot) has been disruptively painted with six colors, ranging "from light tan to dark blue green." In another experiment (above top right), the undersides of a model have been painted in a lozenge pattern which, viewed from a sufficient distance, merges into a continuous tone that simulates "a sky color." Below that is a more or less similar scheme against a sky background.

Above is another photograph from the same article. It shows six disruptively painted airplanes, each of which has been camouflaged with varying degrees of success. In particular, there is an effectively disrupted plane near the bottom left of the photograph, slightly left of center. Despite its camouflage, it can be easily located because of the target-like bull's-eye insignias on its wings.

Camouflaged Fund Raising

Disruptive ship camouflage (called dazzle camouflage) was apparently always popular with the American public. In 1918, as reported in an issue of Popular Science Monthly, dazzle-painted miniatures of a torpedo boat (right) and a submarine were featured at a Liberty Loan fund-raising event on the Charles River. According to the article, "The torpedo boat, towing the submarine, cruised back and forth in the basin, while large crowds from Boston and Cambridge lined the banks and cheered the oddly painted craft." Of the various ways of selling Liberty Bonds, it continues, "this was the most novel, inspiring and appealing."

Wife of a Camouflage Artist

From Lilian Jackson Braun, The Cat Who Could Read Backwards. Jove 1986, p. 34—

"You're a fun dancer," she said. "It takes real coordination to fox-trot to a cha-cha. But we must do something about your art education. Would you like me to tutor you?"

"I don't know if I could afford you—on my salary," he said, and Sandy's laughter could be heard above the orchestra. "How about the little lady from the other newspaper? Is she an art expert?"

'Her husband was a camouflage artist in World War I," said Sandy. "I guess that makes her an expert."

Camouflage Artist | William Andrew Mackay

 

William Andrew Mackay (1876-1939) was a well-known American muralist, who also played a prominent role in World War I ship camouflage. Shown here are three photographs of him, one of which (top left) was probably made near the end of his life, by Peter A. Juley and Son. He is considerably younger in the other two photographs, which are wartime publicity photographs made by the US Government (probably the US Navy) and subsequently reproduced in popular magazines. 

At the time, Mackay was working for the US Shipping Board (Emergency Fleet Corporation), for which he was in charge of painting camouflage on merchant ships in the New York district. Earlier in the war, Mackay had proposed a camouflage scheme, which became one of only five such schemes to be approved for use. Later in the war, all US ship camouflage (military and civilian) was overseen by the US Navy's camouflage section (headed by Harold Van Buskirk). 

Officially, Mackay and his artists were not permitted to design camouflage, only to adapt designs that were provided to them by the design subsection of the camouflage unit (headed by Everett L. Warner). Evidently, Mackay resented this lack of acknowledgment of his expertise and all but ignored the restrictions. Later, he founded a camouflage school (c1920) and published a Handbook on Ship Camouflage (1937). In the top right photo, he is applying a camouflage scheme to a wooden ship model, and in the lower photo he is studying a camouflaged model through a portable viewing device that simulates the  point of view of a submarine periscope.

Hyde Definition and PenCott™

Hyde Definition: Digital Camouflage Design Solutions is a British firm that specializes in designing camouflage clothing for military, hunting, photography and other purposes. Founded in 2008 by Dom and Rachel Hyde, it released the following year a commercial fabric pattern called PenCott™, so named in tandem homage to two prominent British contributors to World War II camouflage: Roland Penrose (artist) and Hugh B. Cott (zoologist). They have an extensive, interesting website, with a blog, examples of their work, a glossary of terms, and a wonderfully rich selection of links.

Reviews of Camoupedia: A Great Book

 

Excerpts from early reviews of Roy R. Behrens, CAMOUPEDIA: A Compendium of Research on Art, Architecture and Camouflage. First edition. Bobolink Books, 2009. 6 x 9 in. 472 pp. 344 illustrations. Includes subject timeline, extensive bibliography and index—

"Everything you ever wanted to know about camouflage." —Design Observer

"A delightful look at camouflage in war and peace… You will be surprised at the number of famous artists and designers [who were] involved in war camouflage work." —Western Front Association

"[This is] a leading contemporary source book." —Leonardo (MIT Press)

"Behrens' archaeological attention to detail and captivating style of writing leads the reader to uncharted territories stretching along the no man's land between academic diciplines… [this book is an encyclopedic presentation of the [author's] vast body of findings in camouflage… [it] opens doors to few frontiers in a number of understudied areas of art and military history." —Laszlo Muntean, Mute Magazine

"[This is] scholarly research and writing that is readable—nothing is hidden." —Richard Zakia, author and Emeritus Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology

"[This book is] worthy of unspoken praise." —Armada International

"For those interested in ship camouflage, this is a great book." —Ship Chat

"Encompassing everything from Picasso to the evolution of mice, it is an essential reference for anyone interested in the subject and its broader context…it is a testament to the authority of Behrens' research and his contagious love for the subject." —Designers Review of Books

"For Behrens, the import of studying camouflage is a thesis for how art and design communicate. In other words, what is the psychological impact of patterns, color, values, emphasis, scale and space as the basis for visual language?" —David Versluis, DCAIGA

Abbott Thayer's Bald Head

From Nelson C. White, Abbott H. Thayer: Painter and Naturalist. Hartford CT: Connecticut Printers, 1951, p. 99—

[Artist and naturalist Abbott H. Thayer] sometimes excelled them [his children] in the invention of fanciful nonsense, as when his daughter Gladys painted the face of an Irishman on the back of Thayer's bald head, the scant dark fringe of his remaining hair serving for the beard. When he entered the room walking backwards and giving life to this grotesque apparition by flexing the muscles of his scalp it was startlingly effective.

Zebra Stripes

From Mavis Gallant, The Selected Stories of Mavis Gallant. NY: Random House, 1997, p. 175—

The bar and the tables and the sticky, salty, half-naked tourists were covered alike with zebra stripes of light and shade.

New Animal Camouflage Research

A recent issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (Biological Sciences) Vol 364 No 1516 (February 27, 2009) was devoted to current research of natural camouflage. Titled Animal Camouflage: Current Issues and New Perspectives and compiled by scientists Martin Stevens and Sami Merilaita, it consists of fifteen papers, all of which are now online at the journal's website. A book is also being prepared. Here is a list of the issue's contents:  

Introduction

• Martin Stevens and Sami Merilaita. Animal camouflage: current issues and new perspectives. 

Articles

• R.T. Hanlon, C.C. Chiao, L.M. Mäthger, A Barbosa, K.C. Buresch, and C. Chubb. Cephalopod dynamic camouflage: bridging the continuum between background matching and disruptive coloration. 

• S. Zylinski, D. Osorio, and A.J. Shohet. Perception of edges and visual texture in the camouflage of the common cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis.

• Tom Troscianko, Christopher P. Benton, P. George Lovell, David J. Tolhurst, and Zygmunt Pizlo. Camouflage and visual perception. 

• Devi Stuart-Fox and Adnan Moussalli. Camouflage, communication and thermoregulation: lessons from colour changing organisms. 

• Marc Théry and Jérôme Casas. The multiple disguises of spiders: web colour and decorations, body colour and movement.

• Martin Stevens and Sami Merilaita. Defining disruptive coloration and distinguishing its functions.

• Innes C. Cuthill and Aron Székely. Coincident disruptive coloration.

• Roy R. Behrens. Revisiting Abbott Thayer: non-scientific reflections about camouflage in art, war and zoology.

• Richard J. Webster, Alison Callahan, Jean-Guy J. Godin, and Thomas N. Sherratt. Behaviourally mediated crypsis in two nocturnal moths with contrasting appearance. 

• Nina Stobbe, Marina Dimitrova, Sami Merilaita, and H. Martin Schaefer. Chromaticity in the UV/blue range facilitates the search for achromatically background-matching prey in birds. 

• Hannah M Rowland. From Abbott Thayer to the present day: what have we learned about the function of countershading? 

• Ariel Tankus and Yehezkel Yeshurun. Computer vision, camouflage breaking and countershading. 

• Tim Caro. Contrasting coloration in terrestrial mammals. 

• Graeme D Ruxton. Non-visual crypsis: a review of the empirical evidence for camouflage to senses other than vision.

Le Corbusier as Camoufleur

First, one of our favorite passages from Peter DeVries, The Tunnel of Love (NY: Penguin, 1982)—

I imagined myself asking her whether she liked Le Corbusier, and her replying, "Love some, with a little Benedictine if you've got it."

Beyond that, there's a reference to Le Corbusier's use of camouflage in Jonneke Jobse, De Stijl Continued: The Journal Structure (1958-1964): An Artist's Debate (010 Publishers:2005), p. 175—

He [Le Corbusier] described his use of polychromy as "architectural camouflage." By giving walls, ceilings and floors their own color, and modulating the space by means of contrasting colors for doors, windows, cabinets and fireplaces, he accented or disguised certain parts of the structure, thus creating the visual structure he was aiming for.

Architectural Camouflage Unit

Since August 2009, there has been an on-going course called Camouflage: AA Intermediate Unit 6 at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. The course instructors are Jonathan Daws, Dagobert Bergmans and Fumiko Kato (see Flowspace Architecture). The unit will conclude in February 2010 with an exhibition called Camouflage: A Catalogue of Effects, views of which are posted there. The site is particularly interesting if you link to the entire contents of the course blog and browse through its earlier postings. The effects that the students came up with are fascinating, especially in relation to the anamorphic warping of two-dimensional or three-dimensional surfaces, making them appear to be the opposite of what they "really" are. The results are not dissimilar from certain examples of World War I-era dazzle ship camouflage, as well as the distorted room interiors and other shapes that were originated by American artist and optical physiologist Adelbert Ames II in the 1930s-50s.

Dali: Submarines and Sardines

From Salvador Dali, "Total Camouflage for Total War" in Esquire Vol 18 No 2 (August), 1942—

Some young sardines are making their first outing under the supervision of their parents. A submarine passes by. The little fishes, alarmed, question their father:

"Papa, what's that?"

"That, my children, is our revenge which is passing: a great tin made of sheet-iron in which men, covered in oil, are held inside, pressed against each other."

Martha Banta on Protective Disguise

From Martha Banta, Imaging American Women: Idea and Ideals in Cultural History (NY: Columbia University Press, 1987), pp. 221-222—

By the close of the nineteenth century new forms of protective, ceremonial disguise had come into play—methods for altering appearance that concealed identities and revealed presences, and that acted to repress particulars of individuality in order to emphasize associations with type. Some of these forms became means for self-protection. One such was the technique of camouflage that found favor in the art world prior to its adoption by the military during World War I.

Day-Glo Camouflage

From Paola Antonelli, Safe: Design Takes on Risk (NY: Museum of Modern Art, 2005), p. 42—

In 2004 a group protesting against fox hunting evaded security and broke into the hallowed corridors of the British House of Commons' debating chamber. They did so wearing fluorescent jackets and, when questioned by a policeman, they simply explained they were going to inspect the electrical system. In his book Invisible (2005), the British photographer Stephen Gill photographed people whose clothing made them invisible. They were not wearing the latest Hussein Chalayan creation, but rather "high-visibility" jackets. These Day-Glo, fluorescent jackets, with their retroreflective stripes, are designed to protect workers night and day on roads, railway lines, and building sites. It is ironic that in trying to make them ultravisible, these workers are instead rendered invisible. We are so accustomed to seeing workers in these jackets that we remove them from our radar. In the photographer's [Stephen Gill's] own experience, if he wears a fluorescent jacket, he can move and photograph where he likes. No one pays any attention to him.

Ann Elias on Max Dupain

Max Dupain (1911-1992) was a Modern-era Australian photographer who—along with zoologist William Dakin and other scientists, artists and designers—formed the Sydney Camouflage Group in 1939. During World War II, while attached to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), he made contributions to aerial photography and photo-analysis. Dupain's involvement in camouflage, in relation to his other work, is discussed in considerable detail in Ann Elias, "Camouflage and the Half-Hidden History of Max Dupain in War" in History of Photography Vol 13 No 4 (November 2009), pp. 370-382. Here are two brief excerpts—

Of all these approaches and styles [in Dupain's pre-war photography] it was surrealism that was closest to a camouflage way of thinking. Surrealist techniques such as simulation to mimic reality, dissimulation to decompose reality and metamorphosis to transform reality were all designed to put the viewer's certainty of sight and powers of reasoning into question. They are also basic techniques of military camouflage where the objective is to use visual surprise and disorientation for military gain. Like surrealist art, camouflage is designed to unsettle the senses and subvert the hegemony of vision. (p. 373)

After the war he [Dupain] said that he did not want to return to the "cosmetic lie" of fashion photography. But it was probably also the case that his deep involvement and later dissatisfaction with military camouflage, a practice that has been characterized as the cosmetic lie of warfare, contributed to this desire for clarity and honesty. The whole purpose of camouflage is to confuse and negate optical clarity and its objective is to trick, deceive, keep secret, dazzle, to hide weakness and conceal strength. One translation of the French term camouflage is the act of putting on make-up for theatre. (p. 378)

Wildlife Camouflage

Given that protective coloration in nature and military camouflage make use of the same perceptual tendencies, it may come as no surprise that a number of zoological illustrators also served as camoufleurs in World Wars I and II. Among them were British scientists Alister Hardy and Hugh B. Cott, both of whom wrote and illustrated their own books on the appearance of animals, while both also served in the British Army as camouflage experts. But there were other naturalists and wildlife illustrators who contributed to camouflage, including Bruno Liljefors, Abbott Handerson Thayer, Gerald Handerson Thayer, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Francis Lee Jaques, Arthur Singer, and Roger Tory Peterson. According to Douglas Carlson, Roger Tory Peterson (University of Texas Press, 2007), pp. 108-109—

After his six-month training period [c1943], he [Peterson] was assigned to Engineer School. His first task was to work on a camouflage manual; as his discharge papers noted, he "illustrated camouflage practices and mistakes, sample problems and other phases of camouflage." In Peterson's words, the manuals were about "simple camouflage where the individual soldier made use of cast shadows or eliminated cast shadows." He also made color, black-and-white, and half-tone illustrations…In a 1944 letter to friend and fellow bird painter George Sutton, he wrote about his army art department: "twenty enlisted men, all of them very accomplished and at least four of which made $20,000 a year or more as nationally known illustrators…"

Figure-Ground in Nature

In Diana Donald and Jane Munro, eds., Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts (New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 2009), there is a wonderful essay by Diana Donald and Jan Eric Olsen titled "Art and the 'Entangled Bank': Color and Beauty out of the 'War of Nature'" (pp. 100-117). It traces the influence on zoological illustration of a passage in Darwin's Origin of Species in which he refers to natural settings as "entangled bank[s]." As the authors point out, this gradually prompted illustrators, including the designers of museum dioramas, to represent natural entities not as "a static and detached representation of each species," but rather as "a world characterized by constant flux and completing forces," with ceaseless interactive shifts between figure and ground.

This was a great departure from the wildlife illustration styles of artists like John James Audubon and Ernest Thompson Seton, in whose work clarity and species identification were of prime importance, making explicit distinctions between the subject and its setting. In contrast, in the view of artists such as American painter and naturalist Abbott Handerson Thayer and Swedish painter Bruno Liljefors (both of whom were greatly interested in natural camouflage, called protective coloration then), animals should be portrayed as embedded in their natural setting, in which case they may not be easy to see. An especially vivid example of this second approach is the astonishing painting by Thayer's son (Gerald Handerson Thayer) of a male Ruffed Grouse in the forest, which was initially published as Colorplate 2 in the latter's influential book, Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom (1909/1918).

It was this difference in approach to bird illustration that led to a painful complication in the friendship between the Abbott Thayer and one of his most devoted followers, illustrator Louis Agassiz Fuertes. At the time (this was near the end of Thayer's life, in the years when his theories were being attacked by Theodore Roosevelt and others), the young Fuertes was making his living as a bird illustrator for major publishers, who had found that the books were more popular when they maintained the tradition of Audubon, Seton and so on. Repeatedly, in letters, Thayer pleaded with Fuertes to acknowledge in his paintings the importance of protective coloration (of figure-ground entanglement), and when Fuertes could not do that (for reasons of livelihood presumably), Thayer began to regard it as a subversion of his own teachings. For more on Fuertes and Thayer, see Mary Fuertes Boynton [his daughter], Louis Agassiz Fuertes: His Life Briefly Told and His Correspondence (NY: Oxford University Press, 1956).

Art and Camouflage in Spain

I have just seen the catalog for Camuflajes, a major exhibition of camouflage-related art that premiered last fall at La Casa Encendida in Madrid, Spain. Curated by Maite Mendez (author of Camuflaje, 2008) and Pedro Pizarro, the exhibit ran initially from September 17 through November 1, 2009. Judging from the rich selection of color images in its beautifully-produced catalog (the text is in Spanish only), it was surely a stunning, instructive event. It is a panoply of experimental works in which artists from throughout the world explore the implications of camouflage, often in the broadest sense. Among those represented are Agrela Angeles, Jose Ramon Amondarain, Eleanor Antin, Liu Bolin, Manuel Cerda, Pietroiusti Cesare, Chema Cobo, Monica Duncan, Lalla Essaydi, Leo Fabrizio, Adonis Flores, Joan Fontcuberta, Alfredo Jaar,  Laurent La Gamba, Rogelio Lopez Cuenca, Maider Lopez, Carmen Mariscal, Laura Mars, Mateo Mate, Carlos Miranda, Ottonello Mocellin, Sonia La Mur, Juan Luis Moraza, Yasumasa Morimura, Lara Odell, Harvey Opgenorth, Ria Pacquee, Desiree Palmen, Domingo Sanchez Blanco, Cesare Viel, Francesca Woodman, and Gina Zacharias.

Beginning January 21, 2010, the same exhibition will also be featured at the Espacio para el Arte Zaragoza in Zaragoza, Spain, continuing through March 31, and then later this year in Malaga.
.

Dazzle Camouflage at Cincinnati

An original exhibition titled SEAGOING EASTER EGGS: Artists' Contributions to Dazzle Ship Camouflage will open soon at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. Curated by Roy R. Behrens (author of FALSE COLORS: Art, Design and Modern Camouflage (2002) and CAMOUPEDIA: A Compendium of Research on Art, Architecture and Camouflage (2009)), the exhibition will be held at the Convergys Gallery at the Art Academy at 1212 Jackson Street, from January 15, 2010 through February 12.

The exhibit is free and open to the public during gallery hours: Mon-Fri 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, and Sat-Sun 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.

In addition, Professor Behrens will present a slide talk about art and camouflage at 7:00 pm, Thursday, January 28 in the Proctor and Gamble Lecture Hall at the Art Academy, an event sponsored by the Cincinnati AIGA. On Friday, January 29, there will be a reception in the gallery from 5:00 to 9:00 pm.

Included in the exhibit are photographs, camouflage diagrams, ship models and other historic artifacts that pertain to contributions by artists, designers and architects to World War I US naval camouflage, particularly dazzle camouflage. It is dedicated to the memories of Meyer Abel, Walter Arnett, and Noel Martin, all of whom attended the Art Academy, then served in World War II as camouflage artists.

The exhibit was made possible in part by access to materials in the Fleet Library at the Rhode Island School of Design, and the Everett L. Warner Archives. Other material was provided by Lyn Malone, the granddaughter of architect and Olympic fencer Harold Van Buskirk, who headed American naval camouflage in World War I. The ship models, which were cast for this exhibit by German manufacturer Norbert Broecher, were donated by Ulrich Rudofsky.

Caligari's Camouflage

From Steen Eiler Rasmussen, Experiencing Architecture (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1964), p. 94—

For most people the Cubist camouflage [of WWI] was a demonstration of visual effects they had never seen before. But by the time the war was over everybody was familiar with them and new experiments with Cubist forms were made in architecture as well as other arts. One of these was the German film Dr. Caligari's Cabinet, made in 1919, in which the action takes place inside the brain of a lunatic where all forms are disintegrated into crooked triangles and other weird shapes. Buildings too were constructed with bizarre lines and shapes.

Camouflaged Tweens

From JoAnn Deak, Girls Will Be Girls: Raising Confident and Courageous Daughters (NY: Hyperion, 2002), p. 99—

[Preadolescent girls, called tweens] cluster together and need to act alike, talk alike, and look alike for the protective camouflage it provides. It reminds me of a Discovery Channel program about running zebras: The stripes made them all blend together so that any predatory animal would have a hard time singling out any one zebra.

Charlie Chaplin's Camouflage

There is a six-minute segment in a Charlie Chaplin film that pokes fun of the trickery of  WWI American camouflage artists in France. The film, a silent comedy called Shoulder Arms, was released in October 1918, just as the war was ending. There is more information here, and there's also a helpful description of it in Kenneth Schuyler Lynn, Charlie Chaplin and His Times (NY: Simon and Schuster, 1997), pp. 222-223—

For reconnoitering purposes, Chaplin encases himself in papier-mache bark and becomes a tree. His camouflage enables him to position himself near three German soldiers who happen by and start to build a campfire. Inevitably, they find that they need more wood. One of them grabs an ax and volunteers to get some. After taking a healthy lick or two at another tree, he decides that he prefers the looks of the Charlie-tree. Terrified but resolute, Charlie knocks the ax-wielder out with a sneak blow from one of his branchlike arms and similarly disposes of his two companions. While still camouflaged, he then saves the life of an American sergeant who has been apprehended for spying…

Camouflage Artist | C. Allan Gilbert

In his own lifetime, C. Allan Gilbert (1873-1929) was a widely published American illustrator, as well as an early contributor to animated films. Today, he would probably not be remembered at all were it not for the continued popularity of one of his illustrations, a momento mori titled All is Vanity (1892). It is a double image or visual pun in which the scene of a woman admiring herself in a mirror appears instead to be a skull, when viewed from a distance. During World War I, he was among a number of US artists who worked for the US Shipping Board (the Emergency Fleet Corporation) in applying dazzle camouflage to US merchant ships.

In 1918, in Nauticus: A Journal of Shipping, Insurance, Investments and Engineering (Vol 1 No 2, June 8), there is a note about the role of the US Navy in relation to the work of Gilbert and other civilian camoufleurs:

Supervision of all camouflaging of merchant vessels for the Shipping Board will be exercised by the Navy Department in the future…"The Navy Department will prepare the types and designs of camouflage painting for general use and, where practicable, design of camouflage painting applicable to particular ships. These design will be furnished the district camoufleurs through the Camouflage Section, Division of Steel Ship Construction of the Emergency Fleet Corporation. The district camoufleur will use the design most applicable to the form and type of ship to be camouflage painted. The district camoufleur shall not change the principle of the design furnished by the Navy Department, but may adopt such design to suit the particular ship which is being camouflage painted."

Camouflage Poem | Paul Myron

"Camouflage and Camoufleur" in P.W. Linebarger (Paul Myron, pseud), Bugle Rhymes from France (Chicago: Mid-Nation Publishers, 1918), p. 35-36—

Uncle Sam is looking night and day, for a thousand men mechanical;

He wants 'em with their brushes and he wants 'em with their paint,

And he wants 'em, though with union rules tyrannical;

For he's in an awful hole…the Staff cannot control,

In a fix that may bring annihilation,

For he's got a million men, and then a few again,

Yet, no ca-moo-flurs, for the combination.

Lord, why didn't some one say, advisin' like a fool,

That "The war's to be won, not by the gun,

But by mechanical men, with a tool."

By mechanical men with a tool, sir.

Who can make the foe out a fool, sir.

In paintin' mirage an' green camouflage,

On the rollin' Atlantic pool, sir.

So come on, ye heroes of the day, ready with yer brush and yer turpentine,

Bring on yer canvas, yet metal and yer sheet,

An' wallop out a scence more serpentine.

Just paint this transport blue, with an ocean swell or two,

That 'ud fool any submarine commander.

And on our sectors there, paint a waste of desert air,

That will make the planes go flyin' by in dander;

For, shucks…this war is yours, on a steady union scale,

For it's all to be won, with paint…not gun,

For it's ca-moo-flage, that makes the Prussian quail.

It's ca-moo-flage that wins today, sir,

Painting' ships a tender whale-grey, sir.

A hundred batteries, it turns to grass an' trees;

It's never for a moment known to fail, sir.

Vive Camouflage! It is a hero's game, when once we've got it specified.

But there's just a little item, I hope it won't affect,

When we've got it all right rectified;

And that's the use of paint, to make Old Nick a saint,

And hide the "pro" and "slack" against the nation;

For camouflage is for just the foreign end of war,

And not to cause at home our consternation.

So, Mister Camoufleur, 'fore ye sail on foreign tour,

Just stripe each "slack" and "pro" a color that we'll know,

And rub his yellow deep, to make it sure.

Henrietta Goodden on British Camouflage

Henrietta Goodden, Camouflage and Art: Design for Deception in World War 2. London: Unicorn Press, 2007. Hardcover, 120 illustrations, color and b&w. 192 pp. ISBN 987-0-906290-87-3.

The current heightened interest in camouflage can be at least partly attributed to Charles Darwin. In The Origin of Species, first published in 1859, he hypothesized that the evolution of species occurs not through divine intervention but by autonomous natural selection, and that the likelihood of survival is weighed in favor of those that are better fitted than others. By the turn of the century, the study of natural camouflage (known then as "protective coloration") had become a research playground for the confirmation (or refutation) of Darwin's theories. Knowing that, it is of additional interest to find (as this book documents) that one of the chief participants in wartime British camouflage was Robin Darwin (1910-1974), a painter and descendant of the famous naturalist. More…

Camouflage at Chicago CAA

This year's annual conference of the College Art Association will be held in Chicago. Among the scheduled sessions is Art after Camouflage, organized by Ann Elias and Tanya Peterson, both from the University of Sydney. Featured talks and participants are: Sonja Duempelmann (University of Maryland) on Invisible Landscapes: Camouflage and Contemporary Landscape Architecture; Stephen Monteiro (American University of Paris) on Designing Men: Andy Warhol's Camouflage and Patterns of Masculinity; Amy Bryzgel (University of Aberdeen) on Camouflaging the East: Vladimir Mamyshev-Monroe and the Post-Soviet Russian Identity; Rob Silberman (University of Minnesota) on The Storm Trooper's Smock: Ian Hamilton Finlay and Camouflage; and Craig Peariso (Boise State University) on The Insistent Visibility of Disappearance. The session will take place on Friday, February 12, 2010, at 6:30-9:00 pm, at Columbus AB, Gold Level, East Tower at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. More…

Ghost Army Camouflage

Some years ago, artist Dennis Bayuzick, a friend who teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, sent me the complete set of fifty US postage stamps, called Birds and Flowers of the Fifty States (issued 1982). I've held on to them all these years, never suspecting that they were co-designed by illustrator and World War II camoufleur Arthur Singer and his son Alan. (There is an online interview with Arthur and Alan Singer about the stamps at this YouTube link.) It was the elder Singer who also illustrated a well known bird identification book (of which I have long owned a copy), titled Birds of North America, as well as twenty other books. During the war, he was a member of the Ghost Army (603rd Engineers Battalion), a top-secret deception unit. Author and filmmaker Rick Beyer is currently working on a film that will document the achievements of that military unit, including such famous participants as fashion designer Bill Blass, artist Ellsworth Kelly, illustrator Arthur Shilstone, and photographer Art Kane.

Camouflage Poem | Wilcox

One of a number of popular poems that were first published during World War I, this one by American poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox (c1919)—

Camouflage is all the rage.

Ladies in their fight with age,

Soldiers in their fight with foes,

Demagogues who mask and pose

In the guise of statesmen—girls

Black of eyes with golden curls,

Politicians, votes in mind,

Smiling, affable and kind,

All use camouflage today.

As you go upon your way,

Walk with caution, move with care;

Camouflage is everywhere!

Your Head Is Where Your Stern Is

During World War I, when it was first proposed that British ships should not be inconspicuous in appearance but should instead be covered in bold, abstract, geometric shapes—called "dazzle painting" or dazzle camouflage—some naval officers objected. In one case (as quoted, without attribution, in Nicholas Rankin, A Genius for Deception (Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 131), a camouflage officer replied as follows—

The object of camouflage is not, as you suggest, to turn your ship into an imitation of a West African parrot, a rainbow in a naval pantomime, or a gay woman. The object of camouflage is rather to give the impression that your head is where your stern is.

Camouflage Artist | Richard Meryman

From Richard S. Meryman, Jr., "Richard Sumner Meryman—For the Love of Painting" at the Monadnock Art website—

In 1916, Wig [Richard Sumner Meryman] joined the World War Ambulance Corps, bringing wounded from the front to French hospitals. When America entered the war in 1918, he transferred as a lieutenant into the Camouflage Corps, which was among the first units in France… [As a camoufleur] He was applying the principles he had helped illustrate in Abbott Thayer's 1909 book, Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom, the culmination of Thayer's obsession with the natural world. This book, adapted to uniforms and equipment, made Thayer the father of military camouflage.

[Note: Richard S. Meryman, Jr., appears in several interview clips, in which he talks about his father's association with Abbott Thayer and his camouflage research, in a documentary film titled Invisible: Abbott Thayer and the Art of Camouflage (PRP Productions), available as a dvd. Click here for an online roster of other camouflage artists.]

Comedy as Camouflage

Rodney Dangerfield, quoted in Joe Garner, Made You Laugh (Andrews McMeel, 2004), p. 72—

Comedy is a camouflage for depression.

Brute Camouflage

From George Steiner, After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation (NY: Oxford University Press, 1975)—

At every level, from brute camouflage to poetic vision, the linguistic capacity to conceal, misinform, leave ambiguous, hypothesize, invent, is indispensable to the equilibrium of human consciousness.

Camouflage at MIT

From "Camouflage Apparatus at MIT" in Technology Review. Vol XXI (1919), p. 321—

On the second floor of Building One [at MIT], there is one of the most complete camouflage sets in this country. The apparatus, drawings, and models came from Washington, New York, and Boston. After the signing of the armistice, Mr. Blume proposed to give the results of the research done by the Navy Department and the Emergency Fleet Corporation to Technology. He sent the camouflage theater, models and other apparatus. Mr. William A. Mackay contributed to this set many models designed in New York. A complete assortment of the results obtained and of instructions is also due to the kindness of Mr. Mackay…

Professor Peabody invites anyone interested to visit the camouflage room. The visit must be made under the personal supervision of Professor Peabody, so only one or two are asked to come at one time.

[According to MIT, the current location of these artifacts is unknown.—RB]

Rudolf Arnheim's Cat

Gestalt psychologist Rudolf Arnheim in Parables of Sun Light (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), p. 91—

Our black cat lay on the window sill, against the black night outside. When his eyes were open, his body was visible, dimly outlined; but as soon as he closed them, the whole cat vanished, leaving only the unbroken darkness of the window. 

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