philosopher Monroe Beardsley / cubistic camouflage

decanter and goblet / Monroe Beardsley

Monroe C. Beardsley, Aesthetics: Problems in the Philosophy of Criticism. NY: Harcourt Brace and World, 1958, pp. 95-96—

A line that turns upon itself so that its ends are fused, and is therefore endless, defines a figure, or what is often called a form. It may be a continuous, unbroken, line-area— that is, an outline— or a circular row of dots, or a group of sketchy line-areas that fuse into a broken line and make a triangle, a pitcher-shape, or an elephant-shape. Consider, for a moment, a square, each of whose sides is a line-area. It does not matter much whether you call this outline a single line, or say that it consists of four lines, one for each side. If we speak in the latter way, we shall want to say that when two lines—as any two sides—fuse together in such a way that they both become parts of a single figure, then they “go with” each other. Line X goes with line Y when they are parts of the same figure.

To explore this concept a little further, we may consider the multiple relevance of lines—a phenomenon much exploited in modern nonrepresentational painting, but one that also throws light upon principles that have always been important in painting. Suppose we draw a large goblet bulging at the top, and a small decanter bulging at the bottom, in such a way that the same line-area serves as the right-hand side of the goblet and as the left-hand side of the decanter. This line belongs to two distinct figures at the same time, or, in other words, goes with two distinct sets of lines. It binds the two figures in a particularly intimate way, by guiding the eye from any point on the outline of either figure continuously to any point on the outline of the other. It is interesting to distinguish varying degrees of intimacy in the connection between two figures, depending upon the connections of their outlines. (1) The figures may be entirely separated as in Italian primitive painting. (2) There may be a broken line that goes from one to another, as in a painting by Rubens or El Greco, where the line of one figure’s leg or back will be picked up by the arm or side of another figure. (3) The same line may belong to both figures, as in the decanter-goblet example, or in paintings by Ozenfant, Gris, Braque, or Picasso in one period—see his Seated Woman (1927)…. (4) There may be strong lines that cut across both figures, throwing their actual outlines into the background, so that in fact the figures are actually submerged and tend to lose their character as figures. This is the principle of camouflage.

related observation by Gestaltist Fritz Heider

 

 

 

or is this outlandish camouflage story so much bull?

Wild West bull fight poster

Despite our enormous dislike of killing animals for sport (so-called game hunting included), we have decided to post a story about camouflage and bull fighting. It is the text of a news article from The Boston Globe (March 24, 1921, p. 13), with the headline BULL HAD ‘EM GUESSING UNTIL HE SAW HIMSELF: How Camouflage Artists Injected Yankee Pep Into Mexico’s National Sport. It reads like this—

NEW YORK—Here’s the story of a bull fight in Mexico City that you can take or leave, according to Miss Hilda Moreno, an 18-year Spanish dancer [actually Cuban-born] who arrived here today from Vera Cruz on the steamship Antonio Lopez. She vouched for the bull story, saying she sat next to three participants in it. Officers of the liner also heard about it at the Mexican seaport. 

The trio she referred to were formerly American sailors, who served in the navy during the war [WWI].

Juan Martinez, famed bull artist, had engaged to slay five bulls for the entertainment of the populace. Miss Moreno had never seen a bull fight; neither had the sailors.

Three bulls were killed with great ease, when the American voiced their disapproval, declaring the animals had no chance. The manager of the show heard their remarks and inquired sarcastically if they could propose anything to add to the excitement. They put their heads together and asked permission to handle a bull. The fifth one was assigned to them, while the fourth went to its death.

In the Navy the sailors had been detailed to the camouflage division and had become proficent in that art. They got paint and went to work on the bull. They painted a face and horns on the wrong end, so that it was difficult to tell which way the animal was heading. When it entered the arena on the run, matadors and toreador were up against it. The bull was all over the place, so far as they could see. The audience howled its approval.

But the bull had a bush of hair as the end of its tail which the sailors had painted red. On one of the turns the animal spied the red and went after it. The result was it spun around until it dropped, to the relief of its antagonists.

Miss Moreno is not going to appear here and has no press agent. She is going to Spain to fill a contract at the Queen’s Theatre in Madrid.

dazzle-camouflaged ship departs from French port

Above Dazzle camouflage scheme applied to a World War I-era American ship (possibly a hospital ship), departing from a French port (c1918). 

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Albert Gleaves, A History of the Transport Service. New York: George H. Doran, 1921, pp. 82-83—

[During World War I] Wide use was made of camouflage painting of hulls and exterior fittings of all types of ships, to confuse the enemy in estimating the course, speed and size of his quarry.

For a long time, it was generally thought that camouflage acted like the invisible cloak of the knight in the fairy tale, which of course it didn’t.

There were various styles of camouflage just as there were different kinds of zigzag [steering]. Some camouflaging was so effective that the course of the ship was disguised as much as 90 degrees. Once an officer of the deck reported that a ship had been sighted heading directly across his bow, when as a matter of fact she was going in the same direction.

Any one living in New York City during the war had opportunity to see from Riverside Drive the various designs of camouflage. Some of these were fantastic, but the majority were known as the “dazzle system,” which sufficiently indicates the style.

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John W.K. Berrian / Tiffany designer and camoufleur

Berrian Draft Registration

There are ten stained glass windows, made by Tiffany and Company, at the Second Reformed Church in Hackensack NJ. According to the New York Times (May 4, 1979), these were among the “favorite windows” of Lewis Comfort Tiffany, who “frequently visited there with clients…”

The windows are well-known and admired. But what is all but unknown is that most of them were designed by long-term Tiffany designer John William Ketcham Berrian (1877-1953), who is also sometimes listed as John W.K. Berrian and John Ketcham Berrian. 

Born in New York, he designed and installed stained glass windows for Tiffany for thirty-five years. When Tiffany died in 1933, Berrian continued to work with the firm until the mid-1940s, at which time he “withdrew hs connections” and “went into business by himself.” Berrian died on February 25, 1953. In anticipation of that, he had arranged for his funeral to be held in the Second Reformed Church in Hackensack. The church’s tenth window, which he had designed, was installed a few weeks later.

Of additional interest is that Berrian also served as a ship camouflage designer for the US Shipping Board during World War I. We know this from three sources: In an obituary in the Bergen Evening Record, it was noted that he had served as a civilian wartime camoufleur, for which “he created designs and effects for the camouflage of warships and transports.”

That is also confirmed by his draft registration card, dated September 12, 1918, in which his occupation is listed as a camoufleur for the US Shipping Board. In that capacity, he worked for William Andrew Mackay, which is confirmed by the inclusion of his name on a list of Mackay’s associates at 345 East 33rd Street in Manhattan.

Sources
"John Berrian Rites Slated In Second Reformed Church: One Of Country’s Foremost Designers, Builders Of Stained Glass Windows, Dies In Hospital" in Bergen Evening Record (Hackensack NJ), February 26, 1953, p. 2.

"Tenth Window To Be Shown At Reformed Church Sunday: Berrian’s Best To Be Unveiled, Dedicated At Special Service; Blends With Other Nine" in Bergen Evening Record, May 13, 1953.

John Ketcham Berrian / Stained Glass Wndow (detail)

 

free online sources of camouflage-related research

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germ strainer, natural mask & checkered camouflage

Above World War I railway mounted artillery, with checkerboard-patterned camouflage. Source unknown.

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It was in 1918 that the great “Spanish flu” epidemic arrived. As with our own recent experience, there were frenzied efforts to find a cure, or at least to find reliable ways of preventing it from spreading. In the article that follows, it was recommended that one way to protect oneself (at least for men) was to grow a moustache, which might then partly function as a germ strainer, a natural mask and camouflage.

HIRSUTE VEIL CAMOUFLAGE IS FLU GERM DUPE in Salt Lake Herald-Republican, December 125, 1918, p. 48.

Further hint to the flu dodger—masquerade behind nature’s mask, the moustache. Or, as a further safeguard, raise whiskers.

Tis thus some of the health authorities advise. A fuzzy growth, whether on lip or jowl, they explain, is a germ strainer. The burglarious bacillus, trying to break in, has about as much chance as a camel at the needle’s eye or a carrot in a colendar.

If the moustache or whiskers prove to be real preventives, lots of Salt Lake men who pine to retire from an ailing world will take the hirsute veil. Faces which have been displayed merely as faces may take on the display of sylvan retreats and bosky dells. Razor and scythe will be laid away and phizes will be allowed to sprout in all their wild carefree abandon. Familiar countenances will be concealed behind an impenetrable camouflage and the only recognizable features when friend meets friend will be a pair of eyes, a twinkling nose and two untrammeled ears.

The local Adonis, whose finely-chiseled beauty won the hearts of all feminine beholders, will appear in his bewhiskered role as plain as a welcome mat. The homely citizen will resemble a discarded Christmas tree, which has reached a sere and yellow pass. It will be a sad day for the barbers, but the hedge trimmers and landscape gardeners may build up a profitable business.

If Salt Lake men decide to go in for moustaches and whiskers, the caravansarles may become strangely quiet. For not a one of them will have the hardihood to order soup.

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

disruptive rattlesnake camouflage / to be discontinued

Magazine ad for Vulcabeston (1919)

ZEBRA STRIPES OFF CHOW CARTS: Solid Colors Will Replace Rattlesnake Trimmings to Economize Paint. Stars and Stripes (Paris, France), June 28, 1918, p. 3—

Zebra stripes on chow carts are to be a thing of the past for some time anyway.

The powers-that-be have come to the conclusion that “the effectiveness of this painting is very slight,” and one of the most overworked words in the language is going to have a little rest. You guessed it: Camouflage.

Solid, dull colors are to replace the rattlesnake patterns in future, it is announced, since it has been proven that they melt into the atmosphere pretty nearly as well as do the more motley contraptions, sometimes better.

Furthermore, all requests for camouflage by organizations in a division are henceforth to be shot up to the division engineer, who will put his camouflage officer on the job and see what kind of concealment will be most effective.

Not that the new regulations will put the camouflage corps out of work. It will probably have to work all the harder. The reason for the changes, and the curtailing of gaudiness, may be summed up in just these words: Economize paint.

surrealism / metamorphic shape-shifting in chalk talks

Chalk talk panel sequence

When I spoke recently at the Hearst Center for the Arts about Salvador Dali’s visit to Iowa in 1952, I noted the resemblance between the Surrealists’ use of metamorphic shape-shifting, in which a familiar form is made to look like something else, and the use of visual puns in cartooning and other popular art.

Long before the Surrealists, visual wit was commonly used by artists, illustrators, cartoonists, and countless others. This may be of particular interest because the faculty committee who arranged for Dali’s visit was headed by a University of Northern Iowa faculty member (theatre and radio) named Herbert (Herb) Hake.

In addition to his well-known work as a theatre set designer and founder of the campus radio station, Hake gave comic cartoon talks on aspects of Iowa history. He did this through “chalk talks,” a traditional stage presentation that used metamorphic picture sequences in which a thing's identity evolves from one panel to the next. An excellent example is reproduced above.

In Hake’s presentations (from A Cartoon History of Iowa) as shown below, he begins by talking about one thing (on the left), then adds to that drawing to make it into something else (on the right). In other contexts, this “trick” of concealing one thing in another is also commonly known as an “embedded figure” or a “camouflaged figure.”

Herb Hake, chalk talk drawings