hide and seek chaos results in futurist masterpiece

Above Printed advertisement published in Textile World (Albany NY), October 19143

•••

Reginald John Farrer [English traveler and plant collector], The Void of War: Letters from three fronts. Boston: Houghton Mifflin company, 1918—

…In certain aspects the war [WWI] is nothing but a glorious, gigantic game of hide and seek—camouflage is nothing else. It is not only the art of making things invisible, but also of making them look like something else. Even the art of inconspicuousness is subtle and exciting. What glory it must be to splash your tents and lorries all over with wild waggles of orange and emerald and ochre and umber, in a drunken chaos, until you have produced a perfect futurist masterpiece which one would think would pierce the very vaults of heaven with its yells. However, as pandemonium produces numbness in the ear, so I suppose a Lost-Dogs'-Home-at-Battersea in chromatics does deaden visibility in a dun-colored ensemble.

But disguise is an even higher branch of the art: you go on to make everything look like something else. Hermit crabs and caddis-worms become our masters. Down from the sky peers the microscopic midget of a Boche plane: he sees a tree—but it may be a gun: he sees a gun—but it may be only a tree. And so the game of hide and seek goes on, in a steady acceleration of ingenuity on both sides, till at last the only logical outcome will be to have no camouflage at all. You will simply put out your big guns fair and square in the open, because nobody will ever believe, by that time, that anything really is what it looks like.

As far as the guns go, the war is developing into a colossal fancy dress ball, with immunity for the prize: wolves in sheeps' clothing are nothing to these gentle shepherdesses of the countryside. The more important they are, the more meekly do they shrink from notice under dominos of boughs or sods, or strawberry-netting tagged over with fluffets of green and brown rags. And sometimes they lurk under some undiscoverable knoll in a coppice, and do their barking through a little hole from which you would only expect rabbits, not shells. It must be the most endless joy to go on planning these disguises. One would lie awake at night wondering how to make one's gun look like a dog kennel, or a dog kennel conceal a gun. But, of course, the individual camouflage is even more exciting yet…

•••

FALSE COLORS: Art, Design and Modern Camouflage

CAMOUPEDIA: A Compendium of Research in Art, Architecture and Camouflage

SHIP SHAPE: A Dazzle Camouflage Sourcebook

Lowest price / three book bundle with free shipping 

aimed to distort the lines and to warp the perspective

Above WWII American ship camouflage (unidentified), 1944

•••

Matthew Luckiesh, Visual illusions, their causes, characteristics and applications. New York: Van Nostrand, 1922, pp. 225-227—

Many optical illusions have been devised and studied by scientists. In fact, some of these tricks are well known to the general reader. Straight lines may appear broken, convergent, or divergent by providing certain patterns or lines intermingled with them. [Beginning in World War I] Many of these were applied to models in laboratory experiments and it has been shown that confusion results as to the course of the vessel. The application of these on vessels has resulted in the grotesque patterns to be seen on ships during the latter stage of the war. It is well known that these illusions are most effective when the greatest contrasts are used, hence black and white patterns are common. Color has not been utilized as definitely as pattern in confusibility, although there is a secondary aim of obtaining low visibility at a great distance by properly balancing the black, white, and other colors so that a blue-gray results at distances too great for the individual patterns to be resolved by the eye. Color could be used for the purpose of increasing the conclusion by apparently altering the perspective. For example, blue and red patterns on the same surface do not usually appear at the same distance, the red appearing closer than the blue.

Such apparently grotesque patterns aimed to distort the lines of the ship and to warp the perspective by which the course is estimated. This was the final type of marine camouflage at the close of the war. Besides relying upon these illusions, ships zigzagged on being attacked and aimed in other ways to confuse the enemy. No general attempt was made to disguise the bow, because the bow-wave was generally visible. However, attempts have been made to increase it apparently and even to provide one at the stern. In fact, ingenuity was heavily drawn upon and many expedients were tried.

FALSE COLORS: Art, Design and Modern Camouflage

CAMOUPEDIA: A Compendium of Research in Art, Architecture and Camouflage

SHIP SHAPE: A Dazzle Camouflage Sourcebook

Lowest price / three book bundle with free shipping 

was utter nonsense / camouflage as painting things up

Bus for wounded soldiers at WWI fundraising rally [colorized]

Peter Rodyenko, “Camouflage: Modern aerial photography outmodes paint, results in introduction of new techniques” in Life magazine (January 13, 1941), p. 39—

To most people, the art of camouflage means "painting things up." They are, of course, very wrong. In general, they get this impression from seeing pictures of guns and tanks "camouflaged" with crisscross and zigzag designs. In their newspapers they read of snipers who wear strange-colored costumes to "confuse" the enemy. They hear and believe stories about industrial buildings which have been so decorated with dazzle paint that they are invisible from the air. What they do not realize is that most of such stuff is utter nonsense.

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 / 

FALSE COLORS: Art, Design and Modern Camouflage

CAMOUPEDIA: A Compendium of Research

on Art, Architecture and Camouflage

SHIP SHAPE: A Dazzle Camouflage Sourcebook

importance of beer color measurement in camouflage

J.L. Lovibond and his tintometer

Until recently, we knew all but nothing about a British brewer named Joseph Williams Lovibond (1833-1918) [also sometimes cited as Joseph William Lovibond]. According to online sources, he invented an early instrument (called a colorimeter) which enabled the standardization of measuring the color of beer.

But it worked for other things as well, and during World War I it was used by the British to accurately determine camouflage colors in order to match their surroundings. This was more or less confirmed in the following news article—

Anon, ORIGIN OF CAMOUFLAGE in Bridgeport Telegram (Bridgeport CT), March 12, 1928, p. 3—

A recent writer in an English magazine says it is a mistake to think that the art of camouflage originated during the World War. The idea of camouflage is probably very old, and the black and white chequer work on old wooden fighting ships is camouflage of a sort. The modern scientific use was, our correspondent believes, first begun by the late Mr. [Joseph Williams] Lovibond, the brewer [originator of the Degrees Lovibond scale], who showed him, in 1913, a screen painted with squares of three colors, about five inches across, which he had designed to hide guns on Salisbury Plain. A gun thus covered was shown to the British War Office authorities some years previously, and though a complete success, and the inspecting “brass hat” was much impressed, nothing further was done on the matter. The War Office front in those days, it is added, was practically impregnable to the inventor.

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 / 

FALSE COLORS: Art, Design and Modern Camouflage

CAMOUPEDIA: A Compendium of Research

on Art, Architecture and Camouflage

SHIP SHAPE: A Dazzle Camouflage Sourcebook

geological dazzle painting / as in a certain small island

agate pattern

Author and exact source unknown, in Blackwood's Magazine, c1922—

[The appearance of a certain small island] is very remarkable. It consists of a rounded lump of hills, with three or four central conical peaks, seven hundred feet high. The lower parts, all completely barren, are striped. and patched, and barred with a geological "dazzle-painting" in ochre and red, brown, purple, and buff, while the surmounting cones, in strong contrast, are pure white. The whole effect is that of some monstrous pudding, standing on the blue-and-white plate of the sea, over whose apex has been poured (in pre-war days!) a large jug of thick cream.

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

the camouflage craze / a book on camou mania now

Camou Mania

CAMOU MANIA A stunningly designed, richly illustrated book on inventive applications of camouflage in fashion and other aspects of popular culture. Includes a section that I myself was asked to write. See online details here.

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

barber poles in WWI / trickily and cockily camouflaged

hypothetical camouflage schemes © Roy R. Behrens

Editorial, NATURE, ART AND CAMOUFLAGE in Topeka Daily Capital (Topeka KS), October 21, 1917, p. 4B—

The new war art of camouflage is not limited to land, by any means. One of our boys transported to Europe has described a fine example of this art, in the case of the American destroyers, hunters of U-boats, who came out to meet the transport fleet as it neared the French coast.

The smudge of the destroyers could be seen 20 minutes before they themselves were visible, and when their hulls finally appeared they bore the appearance of a two-stack freighter heavily loaded and low in the water. As a matter of fact the destroyer has four funnels instead of two, but the two not seen at a distance are cleverly camouflaged to give the appearance of a freighter instead of a war vessel. As the boats came nearer the boys thought they were French, owing to their gay and bizarre coloring, or decoration. Their sides were painted in zigzag lines of white and blue, while the rigging and “concealed” smoke stacks were trickily and cockily camouflaged in wavy lines, or “snaky ribbons” of green, white and blue. The general effect of the American destroyers on the sea, when transacting business, as soon as they can be closely observed, is suggested by the nickname that the American soldiers immediately gave them of “deep-sea barber shops.” The U-boat is the “canned Hun.”

“Protective coloring” has become a new art under war stress. Biologists have associated this art, when employed by nature itself, with strict and crude imitation of environment. There are insects, as described in Prof. Vernon Kellogg’s Darwinism Today [NYC: Henry Holt, 1907], which carry protective coloration to such an extreme of verisimilitude, of punctilious exactness of imitation, that Prof. Kellogg says that they overdo the natural selection business and make it a little ridiculous. That is, they protect themselves beyond all reason, even to the minute imitation of invisible detail. This is regarded by biologists as one of the serious evidences against Darwinism, or natural selection.

But war camouflage has entirely departed from crude imitation. The notion that protective coloration of warships must necessarily be a dull sea-gray disappeared long ago, along with the notion that a hidden battery must be colored in harmony with the foliage of the environment. New principles are employed, as in the case of the spiral green, white and blue lines on the stacks of torpedo boats, the zigzag lines of blue and white on the hull, and the same scheme of wavy zigzag, or spiral painted lines and splashes of color in varicolored combinations on cannon behind the front.

Yet the truth is that the new camouflage follows the principles first adopted by the artists of the Barbizon school and soon carried to extremes by radical painters, the principles that later, about 85 years ago, developed into the new landscape method of impressionism. Camouflage and impressionism are twin-sisters. Nature is in fact colored not on simple, dull principles, but its coloration is greatly mixed, weirdly so, and with no regard to conventional ideas of consistency or harmony. Once in a while, as in this exceptionally brilliant month in Kansas, the true principle of mixed coloration appears to the plain, common eye in viewing the stunning prairie landscape. But to the now initiated artist these colors are present, even when hidden.

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

an expert at making black eyes disappear with paint

Movie poster (1937)

SIGN PAINTER AND CAMOUFLAGER OF BLACK EYES DIES in Graham Daily Reporter (Graham TX), January 24, 1936—

NEW HAVEN—Julius A. Rida, dean of New Haven sign painters and an expert at making “black eyes” disappear with deft touches of a paint brush, died last night.

Rida established a sign shop here when he was 19 years old. His place became a favorite with young bloods of bygone days with more spirit than pugilistic skill.

For $5 Rida would delicately color damaged eye areas and restore them to the natural appearance. The job took less than twenty minutes.

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

construction of a WWI dummy tank by british in france

Above Dummy tank being constructed in France by British forces, 1916.

•••

SWANSEA'S TANK in The Cambria Daily Leader (Wales), October 23, 1919, p. 8—

Somebody at the War Office is evidently deeply concerned that towns' war savings presentation tanks shall be properly maintained and prevented from deterioration into rust and desuetude. Swansea's unattended and unapproachable. because of the trivial paling round it, evidently would not please him, to judge from the following note from the W.O. Publicity Department on tank presentation:—"Each city and town so honored should arrange for proper care and attention to be bestowed upon its charge, so as to keep it always a proud and fitting memorial to an arm of the Service which did so much to save the lives of many thousands of citizen soldiers. The tank should rest upon a firm concrete foundation of ample area, so that on wet days visitors may not carry mud into the interior. The exterior of the hull and the roof should be well cleaned and thoroughly painted at regular intervals, and the wonderful 'dazzle' and 'Futurist camouflage effects may be used with advantage. But if camouflage is not possible, a good serviceable brown color may be used without departing from realism, as, indeed, many tanks went into action plainly painted and with no attempt at cunning disguise. The tracks or road chains should be very thoroughly treated, else they will soon show signs of rust and decay and, as it is not practicable to keep them bright, they should be painted a color as near the natural steel as possible. A tank crew dearly loved to have all the inside of the machine white in color, and it is doubtful if their choice can be improved upon, with a dull black for the engine. For the rest, brass work and steel rods should be kept bright and. clean, and this duty could well be included in the daily routine of an employee of the local council. In wet weather, and at night, the roof of the machine should be covered with a tarpaulin." All this, emanating evidently from a man who knows his tank well, contrasts strangely with talk of using the presentation for scrap iron. It is a counsel of perfection, of course, but Swansea ought to get some useful tips from it.

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

tacoma builds phony tank for WWI liberty loan parade

Above WWI American dummy tank in Liberty Loan parade, 1918

•••

CITY TANK IN LOAN PARADE in Tacoma Times (Tacoma WA) April 06, 1918, p. 8—

One of the novel features of Saturday’s Liberty parade was a miniature “tank” furnished by the city streets department. The tank was built from a new caterpillar tractor just purchased by the city. Although the caterpillar tread of the city machine does not go over the top of the body, as it does in the battle tanks, the machine was camouflaged by scenic artists so that it bore a startling resemblance to the new war terrors. It was armed with a half dozen fierce-looking guns. Commissioner Atkins announced that he would guide the city tank through the streets.

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

John M. Goodwin / WWI railway artillery camoufleur

Here’s a puzzle: I haven’t been able to ascertain if the John Goodwin who authored a book in 2016 on Railway Guns (see cover above) is the same World War I American artist who developed railway artillery during that war. Of course, it can't be (unless that book was a reprint), but they may be related. The full name of the earlier person was John M. Goodwin. But I know almost nothing beyond that. What I do know comes from searching archival newspapers. Below are two items I’ve recently found— 

ANON, The Washington Times (Washington DC), April 25, 1919, p. 9—

John M. Goodwin, of the artillery division, Ordinance Department, and in charge of the camouflage of railway artillery, will give an illustrated talk on “Camouflage” at the United Service Club of America, Dupont Circle, tonight at 8:15.

•••

J.M. GOODWIN TO LECTURE. Will Give Course in Art at Research University, in The Washington Post, February 5, 1921, p. 7—

John M. Goodwin, Civil Engineer, has been named professor of art at Research University. The appintment was announced yesterday by President L.W. Rapeer, of the university.

Mr, Goodwin developed the dual complementary system for concealing big railway mounts during the World War, making his studies amid observations from airplanes. He later delivered lectures for the government on “Scientific Color Camouflage.” His studies have been pursued in the United States, Italy and France…

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

H. Ledyard Towle / artist, camouflage instructor / hero

The Army officer encircled in yellow above is Captain H. Ledyard Towle. He is conducting an outdoor instructional session during World War I, for the purpose of teaching camouflage to members of the American Womens Reserve Camouflage Corps. In earlier postings, we may have blogged about Towle more often than nearly anyone else. 

Not only did he work with this unusual women’s organization, he also became prominent as a “color engineer” in the years following the war. 

He had a significant influence on the postwar popularity of brightly colored automobiles, the colors used in American homes (inside and out), and the choice of colors used (for increased worker safety) in factory interiors. We’ve talked about his activities not only in various blogposts but also in an online video called Art, Women’s Rights, and Camouflage.

•••

Here now are two more recent finds about Towle’s doubly “colorful life”:

GLEANINGS FROM THE WORLD’S PRESS. What Colors Can Do. Queenslander (Brisbane, Queensland). August 8, 1929, p. 63—

“Who did this?” roared the president of a New York bank when he discovered an impish cartoon of himself on the back of an envelope. The guilty 13-year-old mail clerk jumped guiltily, but stood his ground, “I did, sir.” He held out shaking fingers, for he needed his three dollars a week. “I’ll rub it off for you, sir.”

“You will not!” snapped the president. He put the cartoon in his pocket, and his eyes twinkled at the young culprit. “If you can draw as well as that you’d better study art. Go to school nights if you have to, but leave my stationery alone, young man!”

In this unconventional way began the artistic career of Capt. H. Ledyard Towle, chief color expert for the General Motors Corporation and a pioneer in the modern movement to put beauty and color into the American home. If you have a lavender ice box, or a “sunlit” alarm clock, or a flame-colored sports car, the chances are he is responsible (writes Grace M. Fletcher, in “The World’s Work”).

•••

Carnegie Hero Fund Commission (online post). Harold Ledyard Towle, Merry Point VA. Act Details: July 5, 1951. Type of Act: Drowning—

Harold Ledyard Towle saved SheIva Jean Lankford from drowning, Merry Point, Virginia, July 5, 1951. While riding on an inflated tire-tube in the Carrotoman River, Shelve, 9, who could not swim, was swept into deep water by a strong wind and drifted 300 feet from the bank. Although warned by a physician to avoid exertion, Towle, 51, color engineer, ran 250 feet to the bank and entered the water. He waded 50 feet and with great effort swam 325 feet through waves two feet high to overtake Shelva. In a badly winded and weakened condition he took hold of Shelva and supported her. A man rowed a boat to them, and he and Towle aided Shelva from the water. Towle lacked strength to climb into the boat and grasped the gunwale. The man rowed towing Towle to wadable water, and all reached the bank. Shelva was extremely nervous, and she and Towle sustained numerous welts from stinging nettles. Both recovered.

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

camouflage / gestalt / design / taoism / bauhaus

watch free online here

confusion afloat / zigzag splashes of patterned color

Above Dazzle-camouflaged Swedish cargo ship during World War I. Public domain. Digital coloring.

•••

Leslie Walker, The American: A Novel. New York: Putnam, 1970, p. 48—

She automatically smoothed down the thin crepe print dress she was wearing. Its zigzag splashes of patterned color were familiar to Palmer—Virginia had one like it—but there was no signature on the fabric, which meant it was an inexpensive imitation. The design reminded him of one of those World War I anti-U-boat camouflage dazzle patterns.

nautical costuming / the effect is weird and startling

Above Page with ship camouflage diagrams by Alon Bement in "Principles Underlying Ship Camouflage in International Marine Engineering (February 1919). It may be of interest that Bement was an influential teacher of Georgia O'Keeffe at Columbia University.

•••

William Charles O’Donnell, Jr., "Over the Bounding Main in War Time" in Educational Foundations. Vol 30 No 3, December-January 1918-19, pp. 133-132—

…With the nations of the world at war, the ocean highway is beset with peculiar dangers and life on the ocean wave is a succession of novel experiences.

I am thinking now of the incidents of the trans-Atlantic trip to Europe in the month of December, 1917, and of the return voyage in the month of May, 1918. [Throughout that ocean crossing] …I tried to appreciate the subtle artistry displayed in the splashings of color and contortions of design on the sides of our steamer and on the other vessels similarly decorated. Camouflage, I believe, is a French theatrical expression. When an actor puts on his wig, elongates his nose, paints his cheeks, and accentuates his eye-brows for the purpose of blending his individuality with that of the character he is to represent before the footlights, he is the original camouflager, if the word may be so anglicised. So the great ships are made up for their part in the world's mighty drama of war. The effect is often weird, and startling. This nautical costuming seems often to reflect more of the spirit of comedy than of heavy tragedy. One does not have to wait until he is on the rolling waves to get the sensation for which ocean travel is famous. Concentration for a minute or two on the attempt to discover the elements of art in these grostesque displays, the geometric values in those wild configurations is enough to produce the brain whirl and the other disturbances supposed to be symptomatic of ocean sickness. The only cue is to close the eyes, to disengage the mind from the occupation, and to wait for the earth's returning to its orbit. Yet, we are assured that there is a discoverable scientific principle upon which the whole process is established. I have read somewhere of the French artist whose observation of the birds in their flight led him to a careful study of color combinations that produced the effect of invisibility. At short distance the black-backed bird with white breast, for instance, quickly becomes but a thin black line against the background of the sky. At a little distance the black line itself becomes invisible. A similar effect can be obtained with a ship at sea if a similar continguity of variation in the colorings of its exterior decorations is effected. Especially as these ships are tumbling amid the waves at sea it is difficult to judge of their size or to know whether they are coming or going. By frequently veering its course the camouflaged ship is a puzzle to the submarine. Especially is this true of the small vessels, such as the torpedo boat destroyers, which have done such valiant work as convoys for transports and ocean steamers. I have watched these little heroes of the deep cutting into the foaming billows when it seemed as though they were entirely submerged and would never appear on the surface again. I have seen them when it was difficult to believe that they were more than half their real size. I remember watching one of our convoys one morning when it was utterly impossible to see the center of the boat at all. Just a small portion of the bow and about an equal portion of the stern was all that could be discerned. At times it seemed as though I must be looking at bits of wreckage being thrown from wave to wave. So fantastic as these decorations seem to be they are the application of an old science newly developed which has contributed largely to the success of the Allies.

The most astounding fact in all the naval history of the world is the transportation of America's mighty army across the submarine infested Atlantic to the surprise and discomforture of the enemy and to the saving of the imperiled forces that champion democracy on the battlefields of Europe.

The word camouflage, its original meaning unknown or forgotten. has already passed into the vocabulary of English speaking peoples and will find a place in the next editions of complete dictionaries like Websters and the Standard. So from the blazing pit of the war this word has come into our language to be used henceforth to indicate all forms of make-believe and deception. It is a word that has been and will be misapplied and abused but it will ever be doubly significant to the man who crossed the seas at the time of the crisis…

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

dazzling new shoe camouflage / bipedal misdirection

Works by Steve Morris

People may recall that, since 2020, we have on occasion been posting examples of the dazzle ship camouflage plans of a Washington DC-based graphic designer and toy-maker named Steve Morris.

He’s created a wide variety of images (not just camouflage) as can be accessed online.

As shown above, of late he has been designing dazzle-patterned shoes, based on actual historic ship camouflage plans. The results are both elegant and hilarious. They're really wonderful. On the back side, the shoes are even labeled as port and starboard (left and right). These can be ordered online here and here. 

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

a checkered tablecloth / the man Picasso hated most

Juan Gris, Still Life with Checkered Tablecloth (1915)

Above An especially masterful painting by Spanish artist Juan Gris, titled Still Life with Checkered Tablecloth (1915). Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain. 

To a designer, what better proof is there that the most accomplished of the cubist artists was Juan Gris, not Pablo Picasso. What an extraordinary composition—how is it possible? I stand in awe. No wonder Gris was despised by Picasso: He was, according to Gertrude Stein, “the only person whom Picasso wished away.” Indeed, he was the only genuine threat.

•••

Anon. Sioux City Journal (Sioux City IA), August 29, 1921—

Little is seen or heard nowadays about the writers of vers libre or the cubist artists. Maybe they have gone where they belong—to camouflage.

perhaps the origin of the WWI phrase Easter Egg Fleet

unidentified WWI ship in dazzle camouflage (AI color)

Joseph Husband, On the Coast of France: The Story of the United States Naval Forces in French Waters. Chicago: AC McClurg, 1919, pp. 9-10—

Due to the unusually fantastic schemes of camouflage which disguised the ships of the Second Squadron, these yachts were commonly known as the “Easter Egg Fleet,” every conceivable color having been incorporated in a riotous speckled pattern on their sides.*

*Ships specifically cited include USS Corsair, USS Aphrodite, USS Noma, USS Kanawha, USS Vedette, USS Christabel, USS Harvard, and USS Sultana.

free online sources of camouflage-related research

more>>>>

John Wolcott Adams and World War I ship camouflage

Most likely, we have unearthed more information and have written more about the life of American artist William Andrew Mackay (1870-1939) than anyone else [in most online sources, his birth year is mistakenly cited as 1876] . It has been a long extended search, beginning in the 1970s—and it seems as if it never ends. Mackay was a muralist who, at least in that regard, is especially famous for his murals about the life of Theodore Roosevelt, installed beneath the rotunda in the Roosevelt Memorial Hall of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. But he also painted numerous other murals in prominent public buildings.

Our initial interest in him began with the contributions he made to the development of ship camouflage before and during World War I. We have talked about his efforts in various earlier blog posts, but we’ve also written a major, detailed essay about his discoveries (acessible free online), and have often featured his work in published books and articles.

Until recently, we were unaware of his connection to John Wolcott Adams (1874-1925), an American illustrator who was a descendant of the famous Adams family of New England, which had produced two US presidents. We learned recently, in an essay by Christine I. Oklander in an exhibition catalog titled John Wolcott Adams: American Life and History (Chadds Ford PA: Brandywine River Museum, 1998) that William Andrew Mackay was “one of [Adams’] closest friends” and that Adams had been “assigned to paint the American liner Philadelphia.” At least one photograph of that camouflaged ship has survived (reproduced above), taken on June 27, 1917.   

In Mackay’s approach to ship camouflage, the goal is low visibility, not confusion or surface disruption (as is the function of dazzle). As shown in the photograph of the ship, Mackay used an optical mixture of red, violet and green, applied in splotch-like patterns (not unlike Pointilism) on the surface of the ship.