Mannikin

Bernard Childs

By 1966 Bernard Childs had been working with metals for around three decades by the time he created the ephemeral “Mannikin” in 1966, having been introduced to silversmithing during his time at the Art Students League in the mid 1930s. After working as a machinist for the war effort during World War II, he turned his attention to painting for several years. It was his introduction to Stanley William Hayter’s Atelier 17 in New York in 1951 that helped him discover the intersection of all of his artistic interests: intaglio printmaking.

“Mannikin” features several of the techniques that Childs contributed to the experimental printmaking world in the mid 20th century, including an elaborately shaped plate and delicately layered textures achieved with traditional printmaking tools as well as power tools - a technique of Childs’ own invention. The evocative form of the subject borrows from that of a corset or the abstracted form of a female torso, curving and sensual. His colors for this impression - one of 15 proofs - is a tender robin’s egg blue shot through with veins of ochre, lending a baroque lightness to the composition.