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 1963 Romero Brest resigned from the directorate of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes [National Museum of Fine Arts] and accepted a position as director of the ITDT Visual Arts Center. In 1964, the ITDT Prize was national and international, and the jury was: Clement Greenberg, Pierre Restany, and Jorge Romero Brest.
Horacio Safons studied in fine arts schools; he is a poet and a college professor. In the 1970s he began his career as an art critic, which he is still currently exercising. The journal Estudios [Studies] was a publication of the University of El Salvador, in Buenos Aires.
This document illustrates the reception and the bases of the local critique regarding the Torcuato Di Tella Prize; particularly in reference to the artists and the works displayed.
