The protagonists of this book share the same condition: 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-documented prose, Victoria Combalía composes a gallery of figures who, often unintentionally, paved the way: pioneers of transgressions and of a use of individual freedom that today art and fashion have incorporated as a hallmark.

From Marina Abramović to the Baronesa Dadá, including Vivian Maier, Leonor Fini, Maruja Mallo, the Marquesa Casati, Séraphine de Senlis, Tracey Emin, or 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 an obstacle that they knew how to overcome with boldness and commitment.