ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the Bauhaus origins in the work of two camoufleurs, Oskar Schlemmer and László Moholy-Nagy, later joined by György Kepes, who employed their interests in painting, cartography, photography and scenography, hiding structures and cities from aerial views. Schlemmer and Moholy-Nagy experimented with reflective and absorptive light patterns to alter the appearance of human figures, manipulating form, movement, light and shadow. The art and science of camouflage disintegrate form in all types of environments. During the First World War, with the advent of aerial surveillance using airplanes outfitted with photographic cameras, military camouflage focused on the obliteration of shadows. By the Second World War, artists, architects and engineers assisted in obscuring larger geographic regions, hiding urban structures and cities from aerial bombardment. While Bauhaus artists were deemed degenerate by the Nazis, the Luftwaffe compelled Schlemmer to camouflage significant German military sites. In Chicago, Mayor Edward J. Kelly engaged with Moholy-Nagy and Kepes to camouflage the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. While Moholy-Nagy and Kepes could publicly exhibit their work, Schlemmer was forced to hide himself and his paintings. Stemming from Bauhaus Gestaltung, these survival conditions are revealed and concealed through the disappearance of form and shadow.
