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.
In 1962, the ITDT Prize was both national and an international, and the following foreign artists were invited: Kenneth Armitage, Lygia Clark, Pietro Consagra, John Chamberlain, Lucio Fontana, Nino Franchina, Louise Nevelson, Eduardo Paolozzi, Gió Pomodoro, Pablo Serrano, and William Turnbull. The Argentinean sculptors were: Julio Gero, Noemí Gerstein, Naum Knopp, Gyula Kosice, Aldo Paparella, Enrique Romano, Eduardo Sabelli, and Luis Alberto Wells; and the jury was made up by: Giulio Carlo Argan, Jorge Romero Brest, and James Johnson Sweeney.
Eduardo Baliari was an art critic who collaborated with several Argentinean newspapers and journals. He was the director of the journals Crear [To Create] and Caballete [Easel] and, since 1954, he led the Teatro de “Los Independientes” Art Gallery.
This document shows the impact caused by the renewal processes in artistic languages carried out by means of the Torcuato Di Tella Prize, particularly concerning traditional sculpture as well as to the incorporation of new materials, from waste to discarded, broken objects.