Ver y estimar (Buenos Aires, 1948–55) was originally a magazine created by Jorge Romero Brest with the help of his students. In 1954 the Ver y Estimar Association was founded which, some years later, gave rise to the Ver y Estimar Magazine Prize (Buenos Aires, 1960–1968). The 1963 installment of the event was held at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Buenos Aires), which was, at that time, under the direction of Jorge Romero-Brest. Other than Rubén Santantonín, the participating artists were: Luis Benedit, Ines Blumencweig, Osvaldo Borda, Ary Brizzi, Juana Bullrich, Delia Sara Cancela, Pier Cantamessa, Luis Miguel Castelo, Oscar Curtido, Jaime Davidovich, Francisca Ramos de los Reyes, Noemí Di Benedetto, Roberto Luis Duarte, Sergio Ferraro, Orlando Gianferro, Carmen Gómez, Mina Gondler, Roberto González, Berta Guido, Luis Grosclaude, Horacio Grosso, Roger J. Haloua, Osami Kawano, Pablo Lameiro, Carmen Laprida, Nelia Licenziato, Olga López, Lea Lublin, Alisa Luzzati, Oscar César Mara, Federico Martino, Marta Minujín, Noé Nojechowiz, Noemí B. Paviglianiti, Celis Pérez, Delia Puzzovio, Ileana Rabin, Raquel Rabinovich, Berta Rappaport, Emilio Renart, Jorge Roiger, José Santiso, Carlos Silva, Elsa Soibelman, Pablo Súarez, Néstor Tere, Ileana Vegezzi, María Isabel Villegas y Luis Alberto Wells. Though Santantonín’s poetics favored transforming the traditional idea of what constitutes a work of art—(his ideas concerning the thing instead of the work of art; the development of the tactile and the sensory rather than the contemplative; the energy of the immediate; the perishable, the degradable and the fleeting instead of the durable), which would lead to conflict with regard to his involvement in prizes and salons—he understood that his works were aiding and abetting that transformation. That is, they had to be shown to facilitate that process.
