Jorge Romero Brest (1905-1989) was a professor, critic, and promoter of the visual arts in Argentina. During the regime of Juan Domingo Perón (1895-1974) he was relieved of his academic duties and became the director of Ver y estimar [To See and Ponder] magazine. Later on, the de facto government that overthrew Perón on September 16, 1955, which called itself the Revolución Libertadora, named Romero Brest the administrator of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes [The National Museum of Fine Arts] of Buenos Aires. In 1956 he became the director of the Museum, a post he held until 1963. During the 1960s, he directed the Centro de Artes Visuales del Instituto Torcuato Di Tella [Torcuato Di Tella Institute’s Center for Visual Arts]. The Ver y estimar [To See and Ponder] editorial project was undertaken with the support of his students as an offshoot of the art history classes that Brest taught after being removed from his position as professor during the Peronist regime.
The Premio Instituto Torcuato Di Tella was established in 1960, a few months after the creation of the Centro de Arte del Instituto Torcuato Di Tella (ITDT). The latter organization was run by a board composed of Lionello Venturi, Ricardo Camino, Guido Di Tella and Jorge Romero Brest. The Centro was dedicated to the dissemination and promotion of the visual arts as well as to maintaining contact with other centers linked to national and foreign production. The Premio ITDT was created within this framework with the intention of awarding opportunities to young Argentinean artists to enrich their experiences abroad; nevertheless, the Premio ITDT not only awarded prizes/scholarships, but also favored the dissemination of international art within the local scene. This made it an important institution for the renewal of the visual arts at the time. The prize was awarded to both national and international artists until 1967, with a few variations according to the given year. Afterwards it became known as the Experiencias Visuales 1968 and Experiencias 1969. This introductory text by Jorge Romero Brest was selected because it presents the jury’s perspective and also because it speaks to the different functions of the Premio Torcuato Di Tella: especially in relation to the continuation of the international competition that permitted the dissemination of work by the most modern foreign artists at that time, as well as the integration of national artists into the Premio’s context. The Prize also served to promote exchange between local and foreign theoreticians and critics. The text is a fragment of a submission sent to Studio Internacional [International Studio] under the title "Plowing a Furrow."