The book Vicente Aguilera Cerni by Lydia Frasquet Bellver claims the important labor of Aguilera Cerni, who firmly practiced a critique and promotion of art committed to his time under his particular circumstances. This publication aims to be a first approach to the cultural and activist legacy of one of the most internationally renowned Spanish art critics and historians of the 20th century. In fact, until now there has been a lack of a monographic study of Aguilera Cerni’s professional career, as his figure is always reflected in studies on the history of art in Franco’s Spain. The research sought to capture all the facets that he played throughout his life: not only he carried out a relevant work as a cultural promoter (Grupo Parpalló) but also as a generator of platforms for reflection and intellectual exchange (Arte Vivo, Suma y Sigue del arte contemporáneo and Cimal). Likewise, the text contextualizes his artistic and political militancy within the historical, artistic and social framework of the second half of the 20th century.

Lydia Frasquet Bellver is PhD in Art History from the University of Valencia; her doctoral thesis has dealt with the figure of Vicente Aguilera Cerni. She researches on history of contemporary Spanish art, especially social and committed art, as well as its connection with criticism.
She has published in the magazine Archivo Español de Arte. He has participated in Antes del arte, cincuenta años después (Fundació General de la Universitat de València, 2019) and in the biography Jesús Martínez Guerricabeitia: coleccionista y mecenas (Universitat de València i Biblioteca Valenciana, 2013).
She has published “Visualizing engaged art criticism in Spain: the case of Aguilera Cerni” in the framework of the project I+D Decentralized modernities: Art, Politics and Counterculture in the Transatlantic Axis during the Cold War.
He has been working since 1999 as a senior technician in charge of the area in the Martínez Guerricabeitia Collection of the General Foundation of the University of Valencia.

Image: XI Convegno, 1962. Vicente Aguilera junto con Boris Vizintin, Director del Museo de Rijeka (Yugoslavia), CIDA Vilafamés

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