The protagonists of this book share a common trait: extravagance understood not as a frivolous or snobbish pose, but as a way of being in the world. Nonconformist creators, they neither wanted nor could conform to the patterns dictated by tradition. With engaging and well-researched prose, Victoria Combalía composes a gallery of figures who, often unintentionally, paved the way: pioneers of transgressions and a use of individual freedom that today art and fashion have embraced as a hallmark.
From Marina Abramović to the Baroness Dadá, including Vivian Maier, Leonor Fini, Maruja Mallo, the Marquise Casati, Séraphine de Senlis, Tracey Emin, and Yayoi Kusama, they all share a sense of the eccentric that blurs the boundaries between the personal and the creative. With the perspective of time, these portraits reveal to what extent the prejudices that separated “private vices” and “public virtues” were obstacles that they boldly and committedly overcame.
