documentary
Invisible: Abbott Thayer and the Art of Camouflage
Abbott H. Thayer is now best known for his portraiture and paintings of angels, such as this one from 1887 held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. He was also obsessed with nature, particularly how animals could disappear through their color patterns into a landscape.
Thayer identified two visual phenomena undergirding this invisibility: “obliterative countershading” and “disruptive patterning.” In the first, animal skins achieve an illusion of monochrome flatness via coloration darkest in sunlit parts and lightest in areas generally bathed in shadows: examples include the light bellies of otherwise dark rabbit coats or the silver undersides of sharks. The resulting visual compression of a three-dimensional form produces an illusion of monochrome flatness. The second principle takes this illusion to the next level of protective concealment: mottled patterns corresponding to the animal’s habitat disrupt the contours of its flat silhouette, resulting in an impression of not being there.
Watch Martin Margiela: In His Own Words Documentary
Reiner Holzemer, offers a rare and intimate portrait of one of fashion’s most influential and elusive designers. More than a decade after leaving his namesake house, Martin Margiela reflects on over twenty years of work that radically reshaped contemporary fashion. Known for avoiding publicity and never showing his face, Margiela allows his creations to speak through a carefully selected body of garments, archival sketches, notes, and personal objects.
Guided by Margiela’s own understated commentary and insights from figures such as Jean-Paul Gaultier, Carine Roitfeld, Lidewij Edelkoort, Cathy Horyn, and Olivier Saillard, the film traces the philosophy behind 41 provocative collections and a legacy defined by anonymity, deconstruction, and innovation.
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