Out of My Head: The Imaginary Creatures of Josep Baqué

by Brian Chidester, Josep Baque

Out of My The Imaginary Creatures of Josep Baqué  tells the unbelievable story of a World War II-era police officer in Barcelona who in his private time created 1500 imaginary creatures and told not a soul about them. In this first-ever critical biography of Baqué, art historian, author, and curator Brian Chidester reflects the artist and his creation through the prism of 20th century art, the Franco dictatorship in Spain (1939–75), and the few correlative records in Baqué’s personal archive. Yet the book doubles as a manual of sorts on the creative process, and most fascinatingly, speaks to the deeper role the imagination plays in overcoming oppression through wonder. Full-color illustrations throughout

Genres: Art

528 pages, Hardcover

Published May 30, 2023

About the author

Brian Chidester is an art critic with the "Village Voice," a former staff editor with Yahoo.com and the co-author of "Pop Surf Culture: Music, Design, Film and Fashion from the Bohemian Surf Era" (Santa Monica Press). He has been a segment producer for documentaries by the BBC, PBS, Showtime and the Carl Wilson Foundation. Chidester lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Victor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing, bizarre figurative work. Anyone with an interest in surrealist art, outsider art, underground comic art, the more extreme 20th century humor artists like Basil Wolverton or a fair amount of the Mad Magazine crew, the cartoonier end of the Chicago Imagists, or figurative psychedelic art will find this extremely rewarding. The accompanying essays are extensive and informative, if a touch dry, though occasionally overly speculative by necessity as Baque's influences are essentially unknown.

[Jonathan Hawpe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outsider art aficionados do not miss this! Josep Baque was a police officer in fascist era Spain who secretly created illustrations of 1500 beautifully bizarre candy-colored creatures that recall Henry Darger's work as much as E.C. comics monsters. A bestiary from another dimension!