[citation needed] His research for these articles familiarized him with André Dunoyer de Segonzac's illustrations on the subject, and he developed an intellectual interest in art.

Brest was a talented speaker, and first gained renown as an art critic and commentator in a 1943 conference entitled "The element of rhythm in film and sports."

Brest continued an active schedule of conferences and workshops, and founded the arts review journal Ver y Estimar (Look and Consider).

A temporary exhibits pavilion was opened in 1961, and the museum acquired a large volume of modern art though its collaboration with the Torcuato di Tella Institute, a leading promoter of local avant-garde artists.

Brest also promoted the center's famed Happenings, notably those of Marta Minujín, whose interactive displays and mazes helped make the institute Buenos Aires' mazana loca (city block of madness).

These conflicts were satirized by a Happening staged by Federico Manuel Peralta, in which a tug-of-war was arranged on Florida Street with many of the institute's artists on one end, and the unflappable Brest on the other.

[4] Brest lived during this period in a distinctive blue house in suburban City Bell designed for him by one of the artists made famous at the Di Tella Institute: Edgardo Giménez.

[9] Brest was frank when discussing the neurosis, which had earned him notoriety among colleagues,[4] and admitted to having benefited as much from psychotherapy as he did from his second wife, Marta Bontempi, who chastised his irascible moments by ordering him to "be quiet, Enrique!"