Casemate UK Dazzle - Disguise & Disruption in War & Art

[Shar2]

Dazzle - Disguise & Disruption in War & Art

The Pool of London Press

Dazzle camouflage, also known as razzle dazzle (US) or dazzle painting, was a family of ship camouflage used extensively in World War I, and to a lesser extent in World War II and afterwards. The original idea Credited to the British marine artist Norman Wilkinson, though with a rejected prior claim by the zoologist John Graham Kerr, it consisted of complex patterns of geometric shapes in contrasting colours, interrupting and intersecting each other. Unlike other forms of camouflage, the intention of dazzle is not to conceal but to make it difficult to estimate a target's range, speed, and heading. Norman Wilkinson explained in 1919 that he had intended dazzle more to mislead the enemy about a ship's course and so to take up a poor firing position, than actually to cause the enemy to miss his shot when firing.

Dazzle was adopted by the Admiralty in the UK, and then by the United States Navy, with little evaluation. Each ship's dazzle pattern was unique to avoid making classes of ships instantly recognisable to the enemy. The result was that a profusion of dazzle schemes was tried, and the evidence for their success was at best mixed. So many factors were involved that it was impossible to determine which were important, and whether any of the colour schemes were effective.

Dazzle attracted the notice of artists such as Picasso, who claimed that Cubists like himself had invented it. Edward Wadsworth, who supervised the camouflaging of over 2,000 ships during the First World War, painted a series of canvases of dazzle ships after the war, based on his wartime work. Arthur Lismer similarly painted a series of dazzle ship canvases.

This book addresses the achievements of the marine artist Norma Wilkinson and his team and includes a series of new dazzle paintings, along with beautifully printed sketches, designs and artworks. The publication has been printed as a lead up to the centenary of the invention of dazzle. The book is well presented and written, with the complete history of dazzle camouflage and the later spin-offs. The book contains one hundred and twenty five pages with eight chapters which are titled:-

• Norman Wilkinson: The Man Behind the Dazzle
• The Dazzle Painting Concept
• The Art and Design of Dazzle in Britain
• Dazzle in the USA
• Rivals for the Dazzle Painting “Prize”
• Return of Dazzle in The Second World War
• Inspirational and Decorative Dazzle
• Centenary Dazzle

From start to finish this book is a very interesting read, what with the designs, and how they came about, the shenanigans over who really “invented” Dazzle and how the ships were painted and what designs worked best.  The fact that the idea was carried over into World War II goes to show that the original concept was still valid, even though the name was changed to disruptive rather than dazzle. The carry through to art and design makes for a fascinating read in itself, but of course, Nature got there first as it usually does. Whilst the Centenary ships, those modern day/historic survivors painted in 2015 brings the book right up to date with some very colourful pictures.

 

Conclusion

This book covers an interesting subject, and one which I haven’t seen fully told before. The text is well written, keeping the subject interesting for the reader, and the paintings, artwork and sketches are superb and a great resource to the imaginative modeller who feels they would like to attempt some of the wilder schemes.

 

Review sample courtesy of

[AngstROM]

47 minutes ago, Shar2 said:

 

Dazzle attracted the notice of artists such as Picasso, who claimed that Cubists like himself had invented it. 

 

 

The old tagline that 'Camouflage is Cubism at war' probably stems from a sort of urban myth that Picasso's buddy George Braque (whose pre-Fauvist works are nigh indistinguishable from Picasso's) saw an army convoy painted in a camouflage pattern while out walking with Gertrude Stein, another denizen of Le Bateau Lavoir ('Laundry Boat') building in Montmartre that had become an informal centre for the artistic community. An elated Braque is supposed to have claimed the idea was his own: despite the underlying principle that Cubist philosophy was about revealing the nature of a subject by depicting it as a process rather than an image, the techniques required could be deployed to conceal or disguise just as much about that subject.

 

This book seems very interesting, I must put it on my shopping list -many thanks for the review!

Edited December 29, 2016 by AngstROM

[Panzer Vor!!!]

So we will be seeing some dazzling ships at the club  buddy????

[Julien]

puntastic Dave.

[bootneck]

I hadn't noticed this book on the radar, even though I regularly get email updates from Casemate, so it is a very pleasant surprise to see it being reviewed here. 

A nice review Dave and one to make me add this book to my wish list.

 

Mike