False Colors: Art, Design and Modern Camouflage (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

An exhilarating kaleidoscope of artists fooling around, making visual puns, tricking society, and conjuring up novel solutions. -- Kevin Kelly, Recomendo web site, September 2003

[A] highly original, well-researched, and often fascinating book. -- Modernism / Modernity, 2003

[The author's] romp through history and ideas is what makes this book both refreshing and provocative. -- Graphic Impressions, Summer 2002

[This book's goodness] lies in its freshness, its range of information, and its sound technical theories about how we see). -- Guy Davenport, Harper's Magazine, August 2002

[This book] is nicely produced and copiously illustrated with well chosen items. -- Leonardo Digital Reviews web site, April 2002

Product Description

An engaging and often amusing account of the little known use of artists, designers, and architects as army, navy, and civilian camouflage experts (called "camoufleurs") during World Wars I and II. Described and illustrated are documented attempts--some ingenious, others bizarre--at "fooling the eye" by such prominent artists (from France, England, the US, and Germany) as Abbott H. Thayer, Jean-Louis Forain, Andre Dunoyer de Segonzac, Jacques Villon, Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, Norman Wilkinson, Everett Warner, Sherry Fry, Barry Faulkner, Homer Saint-Gaudens, John Singer Sargent, Frederic Waugh, Edward Seago, Blair Hughes-Stanton, Charles Burchfield, Oskar Schlemmer, Franz Marc, Edward Wadsworth, William Stanley Hayter, Roland Penrose, Julian Trevelyan, Eric Sloane, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Gyorgy Kepes, Jon Gnagy, Arshile Gorky, Victor Papenek, and Ellsworth Kelly.

Illustrated by 120 vintage photographs, diagrams, and artworks, the text explains how the strategies used to conceal objects in nature and warfare are based on the very same "unit-forming factors" that artists, designers, and architects use every day in the creation of paintings, prints, fonts, logos, page layouts, web sites, furniture, buildings, and so on.

Throughout the book, the author makes shrewd observations about the connections of art, design, and camouflage to such seemingly wide-ranging topics as Gestalt psychology, esthetics, Cubism, Dada, Surrealism, psychoanalysis, kindergarten, creativity, the Bauhaus, Frank Lloyd Wright, humor, dream analysis, Rockwell Kent, poetry, pickpockets, and sleight of hand.

Of additional interest are a camouflage timeline, an account of the etymology of the word camouflage, and a 10-page bibliography, the largest ever compiled on the subject of art and camouflage.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Bobolink Books; 1 edition (February 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971324409
• ISBN-13: 978-0971324404
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #768,728 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A somewhat strange book, August 29, 2008

By	wayne scarpaci "wayne" (gardnerville nv us) - See all my reviews

As a serious Naval Historian I purchased this book for the information it contains about USN and Allied Naval Camouflage Theories, and Applications....And I was not disappointed as this book does proved an excellent insight into the operations of the camouflage bureaus in both WW1 and WWII.....As well a look at the visual and artistic theories used in the design and evaluation of camouflage patterns............Unfortunately it is written in an 'artsy style', with loads of what I felt were 'off the subject' text, illustrations, cartoons and such....I would however recommend it to the serious Naval Historian for information not published elsewhere....Wayne Scarpaci

4.0 out of 5 stars False Colors Review, January 7, 2009

By	Brooklyn Artist (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Excited about this book. It is only black & white, but since it is more historical and filled with theoretical information, I think that it's alright to not be in color. It took a little time to arrive, but was within the time range of the assigned delivery date.