Overview

'Art? What has art ever done for us as a family?' In the First World War, artist-soldier Joseph Gray drew and painted scenes of battle, his illustrations appearing in the popular press and his canvases sold to museums. But after struggling through the next decade and facing the threat of another war, Joseph had found a secret new calling- the art of camouflage. As he went from representing reality to disguising it, Joseph's growing interest in camouflage concealed another, deeper subterfuge. He was leading a double life, and would eventually leave his family for the woman that he loved. Joseph Gray's Camouflage is a multi-layered story of art, war, love and deception. Beyond attempting to pin down the image of a man who eludes us at every turn, it also traces the development of camouflage between the two wars and shines a light on the unlikely band of artists who made it happen. Though private letters, diaries, archives and interviews Joseph's great-granddaughter Mary Horlock pieces together the truth that was once lost, and brings his far-from-ordinary life back into focus.

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9781783524686

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Reviews

A fascinating and strangely moving account, which not only maps the history of camouflage in war but also interrogates what it might mean to live a secret life, to camouflage oneself, to disappear -- Olivia Laing Joseph Gray's Camouflage is a book about seeing and not-seeing. It is, inter alia, a love story, a social history and an enquiry into memory told through the biography of a remarkable artist and his family. I loved it -- Edmund De Waal

A fascinating and strangely moving account, which not only maps the history of camouflage in war but also interrogates what it might mean to live a secret life, to camouflage oneself, to disappear -- Olivia Laing

Author Information

Mary Horlock worked as a curator at the Tate Gallery Liverpool and Tate Britain, and has written widely on contemporary art and artists. Her first novel, The Book of Lies, was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award.

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