Artist Spotlight: Czanara

Raymond Carrance, working under the name Czanara, created an intriguing body of homoerotic artwork in the '50s and '60s.

By Christopher Harrity

July 26 2014 4:00 AM EDT

Working both as a photographer and an illustrator, Raymond Carrance, under the pseudonym Czanara, created what was daring art for his time. Carrance, who lived from 1921–1998, was also responsible for illustrating with elaborate etchings and lithographs 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). In everything, Czanara brought a magical surrealistic style like contemporaries Paul Cadmus and Jared French.

Thanks to the wonderful blog www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/, and the many of the images sourced from Wessel +O'Connor Fine Art for this article.