Vicente Aguilera Cerni, “Willem de Kooning,” translated from Spanish by Cleo Clauson, originally published “William de Kooning,” in Problemas del arte contemporaneo single issue no. 1 (Madrid: 1959)

Vicente Aguilera Cerni, one of Spain’s most eminent and prolific art writers, was a supporter of modern Spanish artists and a key figure for introducing American art to Spanish audiences. His Introduccion a la pintura norteamericana was the first book published by a Spanish writer to offer a survey of American art from the colonial period to the twentieth century. Two years later Aguilera Cerni published a second book, specifically focusing on modern American art: Arte Nortemericano del Siglo XX. Before the apocalyptic paintings by Willem de Kooning, the question arises as to how these waves of horror, this heaving, this overwhelming nausea have reached the man and the painter. Since the painter has proposed to reveal the area of maximum dissociation, it would be futile to demand something different, more gentle and reassuring from him. The one who chooses such a path can only ask for extremes when confronted with vomiting and agitation.