Thursday 1 July 2010

Warpaint: artists and camouflage

Furious

Another jewel from the archive. Patrick Wright, author of many articles and six books (one of which, Tank: The Progress of a Monstrous War Machine, is a favourite of mine) made this documentary about the uncomfortable collision of art and war in the early twentieth century. In particular, it's about a British society portrait painter called Solomon J Solomon and his innovations in camouflage. It was produced in August 2002 by John Goudie, who now, among other things, produces Radio 4's Front Row.
Wright has a brilliant web site with enough clever words on it to keep you going for weeks - including these about our hero Solomon.
The picture shows HMS Furious in about 1918, painted in what is still called 'dazzle camouflage,' another innovation of the period. It's from the Wikimedia Commons (MP3).
@'Speechification'

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