“to dazzle and confuse the eye”

Stanley Tigerman
Paintings & Multiples
Red Concavities, 1966
Oil on wood, 31" x 31"
Image ©Stanley Tigerman

This is one of Stanley Tigerman’s compelling Op Art experiments from the mid-60s.

There’s a great relationship between Op Art of the 1960s and the dazzle-ships and camouflage of World War I. Tigerman’s delightful tessellation illustrates nicely a description by Robert G. Skerret who spoke about ship dazzle camouflage in 1919. In a very useful anthology titled Ship Shape, edited by Roy R. Behrens, Skerret writes:

Various patterns, arranged according to their effectiveness, suitable for outline blurring after they have blended visibility into a uniform gray. When the patterns are discernible, however, they serve to dazzle and confuse the eye. (1)

1. Skerret, Robert G. “hoodwinking the periscope.” Ship Shape: A Dazzle Camouflage Sourcebook. Ed. Roy R. Behrens. First ed. Dysart, Iowa: Bobolink Books, 2012. 123-26. Print.