Czanara: Photographs and Drawings

by Raymond Carrance (Photographer)

Photographs & Drawings introduces the obscure art of Raymond Carrance (1921-1998), a talented photographer and book illustrator. Working in the 1950s and 60s, Carrance created a private catalog of homoerotic dreamscapes under the pseudonym “Czanara”. The book is a magnificent look at one of the greatest unknown erotic artists of the 20th century. His drawings and photographs were discovered by David Deiss, a collector, who purchased the contents of the artist’s atelier a few years ago from a bookseller in Lyons, France. Little is known about Carrance, other than what Marc Daniel wrote about him in Czanariana , his only monograph to date. Carrance had several exhibitions in Paris in the 1960s and 70s and illustrated probably half a dozen elaborate books, including an edition of Montherlant’s gay classic La Villedon’t Le Prince est un Enfant . He worked as a commercial artist in his early career, as there was evidence of some advertising work for Perrier among the works in the collection.

Photographs & Drawings is the first book by Antinous Press, a new imprint from legendary Creative Director Sam Shahid. Dedicated to creating distinctive high-end publications, Antinous Press will explore sex and beauty through the visions of artists, photographers, writers, and popular culture.

108 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2007

Reviews

[Grady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Limited Editions: Keys to Locked Doors

David Deiss is an art collector with a keen eye for the unknown artists of significance. He is responsible for bringing this monograph of Czanara to public attention, and while this artist does not necessarily rank in the top echelon of 20th century artists, he most assuredly deserves exposure. This monograph CZANARA PHOTOGRAPHS AND DRAWINGS is a well designed and produced volume that is still available to the art lover willing to search for it: it is a limited edition - a fact that makes it even more valuable in the library.

The artist is Raymond Carrance who used the pseudonym 'Czanara' most likely due to the subject matter of his art, still peripheral in his working time of 1950 - 1970. Born in 1921 Czanara was one of the hidden lights of erotic art in France. His drawings are not unlike those of fellow artists Jared French and Paul Cadmus, yet his style is uniquely his own: his use of photographs, images of male nudes superimposed with other photographs of details of the body or of flowers or simply patterns and shadows, are subtle, more interested in creating an atmosphere than in placing the model as a image of worship. It is this combination of elements - model, objects, props, outdoor as well as indoor locations superimposed - that makes his work remarkable. His drawings range from the brief sketch to the fully developed figure, the latter obviously the seed for his multiple etchings and lithographs he created to accompany the works of Jules Renard and Cyrano de Bergerac, as well as an edition of Henry de Montherlant's 1951 gay classic La Ville dont Le Prince est un Enfant (The Land Whose King is a Child).

Raymond Carrance, or Czanara, died in 1998 in obscurity, an artist without heirs whose entire body of work was sold at auction. It is fortunate for this artist that the buyer, David Deiss, had the interest and courage to capture the work of this artist in this excellent volume. The photographs are reproduced in rich colors and on fine stock, and the drawings are reproduced with equal attention to detail. Not every photographic art work or drawing (or combinations of both) is important, but there are a considerable number of images that deserve exposure in collections of the art of the 20th century. Grady Harp