The art of camo, or Can you still see me?

    

A model wears a camouflage dress by Jean-Paul Gaultier. Photograph: Jean-Pierre Muller/AFP 

In an August 24, 2007 post, MadSilence addressed the art of camouflage. In the Summer 2007 issue of ARTnews, Rachel Somerstein reports on an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in London. Camouflage is described as “The first major exhibition to explore the impact of camouflage on modern warfare and its adoption into popular culture.”

The exhibition highlights the activities of the French artists Eugene Corbin and Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola and there activities during WWI with the French Section de Camouflage (Camouflage Department), as well as British painter and naval commander Norman Wilkinson, developer of the Dazzle camouflage pattern.   

Even more interesting, the exhibition explains how in recent decades camouflage has infiltrated popular culture. According to the Imperial War Museum’s Press Desk:

[Camouflage] has been used as a uniform for anti-war protestors and also taken up by singers and musicians such as The Clash, Public Enemy and Madonna. Camouflage has continued to inspire artists and designers in the post-war period and works featured in the exhibition include Andy Warhol’s famous camouflage prints as well as art by Alain Jacquet and Boetti. Also on display will be street style by Maharishi and couture by John Galliano, Philip Treacy, Jean Paul Gaultier; urban camouflage designs by Adelle Lutz for David Byrne’s film True Stories; and a ballet costume created by Gerald Scarfe for the English National Ballet’s production of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker.

 

Contemporary designers now use camouflage patterns to attract notice, not to conceal or divert attention. Camouflage designs are used on contemporary artifacts such as clothing, skateboards, and cell phones.

                                             

Blank Neon Camo SKATEBOARD DECKS                           Nicole Miller Camouflage Universal Cell Phone Carry Case with Hand Strap                                           

Does the Camouflage exhibition address art or history? The WordPress blog Trench Fever, maintained by a Lecturer in Modern British History at Queen Mary University of London, provides interesting insights.

Camouflage exhibition reviews:

Mission invisible, from The Guardian

Now you see it… Now you don’t, from the TimesOnline

~TAB