Coignard, James

In 1968, the French painter, engraver and sculptor had a crucial meeting with his painting colleague and friend Henri Goetz, where the latter presented him with the new technique of carborundum printmaking that he had just invented. In contrast to other printmakers who were only superficially exploring this complex technique, Coignard perfected the laborious process for his own ends. In the following years, he produced some of the most exciting carborundum etchings with reliefs that seem unbelievably plastic. In many cases, they were unique and often combined with collages and extra layers of paint in order to create mixed media works. Coignard used as the print substrate hand-made, extremely thick laid paper that was produced for him by an old paper mill.