James COIGNARD (1925-2008) - Lot 19

James COIGNARD (1925-2008) AB Original Carborundum and justified 40/75 H. 50 x W. 72 cm Note: James Coignard was born in Tours in 1925 and died in 2008. In the 1950s, Galerie Hervieu organized his first exhibitions on the Côte d'Azur, where the painter had set up his studio a few years earlier. Here he met Max Papart, Matisse, Braque and Chagall. The works the artist created during this period were often narrative in nature. He experimented with different techniques, including ceramics, sculpture and glass, tapestry and carborundum engraving. It was this process, invented by Henry Goetz, that propelled James Coignard's career and made him known worldwide. In the mid-1960s, James Coignard abandoned figurative themes. The human figure appears at most as a faceless doll, which Coignard himself refers to as a puppet or mannequin. His "hostages" and "profiles" are merely fragments of the pictorial composition. They are mute witnesses to the transformation of matter, indicating the traces of man who has left his mark in the form of graffiti or other signs. As the hostage of perennity, man is also the guardian of eternity. This ambivalence between the profane and the sacred is characteristic of Coignard's work. His painting reflects a perfect balance between action and contemplation. His form lies in contemplation, which becomes ritual.