Rubén Santantonín

However, while his name is credited to this exhibition, the reaction of the press attributed sole authorship of La Menesunda to Minujin, provoking him into an existential crisis. Due to this, Santantonín ended his career as an artist by closing his “painter-construction” phase. Shortly before his untimely death in April 1969, Santantonín lit a bonfire and burned almost all of his Arte-cosas artwork. This act of destruction has been interpreted as a gesture of despair prompted by his disappointment at the media’s reaction in his artistic work. Although at the time Santantonín felt like he had failed as an artist, this could be seen as a punishment through which he felt like society was not worth viewing his artwork in the future. Presently, because there are few remaining pieces, collectors, members of the art market, and various Latin institutions are searching in vain for what is left behind or hidden. As for now, there are less than ten pieces known to be left behind, and it is uncertain if any more than this number remain.

In 1965, he collaborated with Marta Minujín to create an installation called La Menesunda (Mayhem)[1], . While Minujin and Santantonín were unlikely partners due to their generational gap, these two artists became close from the beginning based on their mutual interests in popular culture and Kitsch.

During the middle of his career, Santantonín’s work had an immediate impact through his representation of Argentina in his own exhibitions, such as the Lirolay Gallery in 1961 and 1941, as well as at exhibitions L’Art Argentin Actuel (Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, 1963), New art of Argentina (Walker Art Center, Minneaopolis, 1964), and at the VII Sao Paulo in which he participated in.

Rubén Santantonín (1919–1969) was an Argentinian visual artist. Although he was active in the Pop art movement through his participation in Torcuato di Tella Institute, Santantonín's personal artwork was based more on conceptual and abstract idealism. His artworks tended to involve mixed media that would challenge the viewer's relationship with objects and materials.

Born in 1919, Santantonín did not have any formal art education or training, but was largely self-taught. Indeed, he was largely unknown in the art world until 1943 when he entered the artistic world from the sidelines. Then, during one of his first exhibitions, at the Van Riel Gallery in 1960, he was “discovered” by two Avant-garde artists of the time, Luis Felipe Noé and Kenneth Kemble.