James Coignard, Character and Flowers

print (carborundum), paper, dimensions 76x57 cm sheet; 57x39 print; signed p.d. "6/60 J.Coignard" in pencil

James Coignard (1925-2008) was a well-known, versatile French artist - printmaker, painter and sculptor. His geometric abstract painterly compositions are recognized on par with his colorful prints executed in his own carborundum technique. The multicolor prints are made on organic, thin paper with a specific texture and are characterized by the extraordinary painterly effect of the print. James Coingard studied at the School of Decorative Arts in Nice and was associated with the Harvieu Gallery there from the 1950s. In the 1960s he began working with glass, composing multicolored sculptures in this material. In 1986, his friend Henri Goetz invented a new graphic technique called carborundum, which became the artist's main graphic medium. It made it possible, by mixing alumina powder with acrylic paints on an aluminum plate, to achieve the painterly effects of a graphic print. The author has participated in many exhibitions, including international ones, and his works can be found in private and museum collections at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, among others. York and in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.