Camouflage

"As usual, Warhol took someone else’s idea and made it his by reducing it to its essence end then pushing it to its limit. He threw out the mesh and focused on the camouflage pattern itself, playing with both its meaning and form. As he did with his 1977 Hammer and Sickle paintings, he took a symbol of state power and turned it into décor…But to call these paintings decorative would be short-sighted, for in manipulating the size, shape, and colors of the traditional military fabric—a fabric designed not to be seen—he demonstrates an almost effortless ability to summon up an entire range of art historical references from Chinese landscapes to Monet's Water Lilies... Of course pretending he didn't know anything about art history was one of the many ways in which Warhol camouflaged himself.... For Warhol, the art of deception, the fun of fooling people, mystifying, hiding, lying—camouflaging, if you will—was a compulsion, a strategy, and a camp."
- B. Colacello, Andy Warhol: Camouflage, New York, 1998, p. 8.