Satellite II

Bernard Childs

Satellite II represents a further development of Childs’ plate created in 1963 for Satellite, which was cut and engraved with rotary saws, power drill, burrs, scraper, burnishers, and files. Satellite II was printed in a number of color states before the proof edition of 10, printed in metallic gold made by the artist and blue and black inks. The plate is in the collection of the Boston Public Library.

Bernard Childs once stated, “True printmaking is a risky business, and risk is worthwhile. It leaves the artist free to use his media in a truly creative sense. He doesn’t care how long it takes to perfect a plate or to find or create the tools with which to make it. Nor does he care how many proofs he may have to pull to get the one which satisfies him. It may take six months or two years, but the glow he gets from that first satisfactory proof may last through the next dozen.”

Bernard Childs met the Danish silversmith Peer Smed and later remarked: “From this great craftsman I learned the beauty of metals, the feel of them in my hands, the excitement of fashioning them and the use of the special tools that bring them to life.”

He later mastered industrial tools and metalworking while employed as a machinist. Childs moved to Europe in 1951, living for a year in Italy before settling in Paris for the next fifteen years. In 1954, while spending a few months at Atelier 17 in Paris, Childs combined his interest in metal and knowledge of industrial tools to make experimental intaglio prints, using power tools to incise the plates.