Collection: JAMES COIGNARD

James Coignard is a French painter, engraver and sculptor, born on September 15, 1925 in Tours.

In the late 1960s, the artist will particularly exploit the possibilities offered by carborundum engraving. He is unclassifiable, he touches, experiments, tries, and tirelessly looks for the supports, the forms and the techniques that allow him to evolve his artistic researches.

At the beginning of his career, Coignard is likened to the realists of the Ecole de Paris. Very quickly, it becomes difficult to stop his work in one of the artistic movements of this second half of the twentieth century; but, in the light of his work, it is clear that James Coignard belongs fully to his time.

In 1948, James Coignard discovered the Côte d'Azur, and decided to follow the courses of the School of Decorative Arts in Nice. In his early days, he is a ceramist. His meeting with Paul Hervieu, gallerist in Nice in 1950, is decisive for his career. Coignard exhibited for the first time at Beaulieu-sur-Mer, and it was through Paul Hervieu that he met Braque, Matisse and Chagall.

In the 1960s, Coignard stopped practicing ceramics to devote himself to painting. His career has an international dimension, especially in the United States and Sweden. He travels around the world and tries new techniques such as tapestry and glass sculpture.

He died on March 7, 2008 in Mougins.