Warhol’s series of Camouflage paintings takes a ready-made pattern from a functional military design and emphasizes its decorative qualities through repetition and heightened color combinations. While the composition suggests the all-over fields of shape and color of mid 20th-century abstract painting, it also evokes the bold patterns that appear in the paintings of Henri Matisse, an artist whom Warhol identified as a role model and whose work can be viewed in the BMA’s Cone Wing. As the purpose of camouflage is to shield whatever lies underneath, it serves as a provocative emblem for an artist well known for his inclination to hide behind the persona he created for himself. “If you want to know all about Andy Warhol,” he said, “just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, and there I am. There’s nothing behind it.”