In 1960 and a few months after having created the Centro de Arte del Instituto Torcuato Di Tella (ITDT) [Art Center of the Torcuato Di Tella Institute]—directed by a Council made up of Lionello Venturi, Ricardo Camino, Guido Di Tella and Jorge Romero Brest— the ITDT Prize was made possible. The purpose of this center was to cooperate in the diffusion and promotion of the visual arts and to keep in contact with other centers connected with production at both a national and an international level. Within this context, the Premio ITDT [ITDT Prize] was created to provide an opportunity for young Argentinean artists to enrich their experience abroad; nevertheless, its creation did not just allow for the awarding of the grant-prize, but it also spurred the circulation of international art in the local arena, becoming an important reference point for the visual arts renaissance of the time. This prize was awarded to national or international artists, with some variation depending on the year in question, until 1967. Beginning that year, it changed its name and became Experiencias Visuales [Visual Practices], and then just Experiencias [Practices] in 1968 and 1969.
The artists invited to this first edition of the Torcuato Di Tella Institute Prize (exhibited in October, 1960) were: Juan Carlos Badaracco, Carlos Cañás, Aníbal Carreño, Víctor Chab, Néstor Del Corral, José Fernández- Muro, Alberto Greco, Sarah Grilo, Kenneth Kemble, Ezequiel Linares, Alfredo Hlito, Alisá Luzzati, Rómulo Macció, Horacio Mazza, Josefina Miguens, Luis Felipe Noé, Miguel Ocampo, Marta Peluffo, Rogelio Pollesello, Mario Pucciarelli, Kazuya Sakai, Clorindo Testa, Jorge de la Vega, Alicia Giangrande Yadwiga, and Luis Wells.
The Torcuato Di Tella Collection, formed in great part under the counsel of Lionello Venturi, displayed a progressive development of European art, beginning from the Western Medieval, with important works of art from the 12th and 13th centuries (works by Fra Angélico) from the Renaissance (Raphael, Tintoretto), and from the 19th century, artists such as Degas, Cézanne and Gauguin, among many others.
The exhibition by the Italian Alberto Burri was an opportunity to present to the Argentinean audience the audacity of an artist whose work involved diverse objects far away from traditional parameters.
This prologue included a review of the institution’s goals, as well as the main projects in view by the Torcuato Di Tella Foundation.
