James Coignard (1925-2008) is a French abstract artist who worked as a painter, ceramist, sculptor and etcher.
At the age of 23, Coignard made up his mind to become an artist and enrolled at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Nice, France. Later Coignard apprenticed under the well-known painter Marchand des Raux. In both his mixed media on canvas and his works on paper, Coignard is known for his technical versatility. He achieves a deep, heavy texture as a distinctive trait in his art. ''The painter is, like everybody, witness of his time. . . I focus in my paintings on the anguishes and agressions of mankind by my gesture of anger, dynamism and also of hope.'' Coignard is represented in the collections of the Guggenhein Museum in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, the British Museum in London, the Dublin Museum in Ireland, the Muse dArt Contemporain in Montral, Quebec, the Bibliothque nationale in Paris, and numerous others.