, see photo, "Alvar sunol Munoz Ramos Born in Montgat, Spain, a Catalan fishing village on the Mediterranean coast near Barcelona, Alvar began painting at the age of 12. He was accepted into the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Jorge in Barcelona at the age of 17. At age 18 he won the Young Painter Prize in a competition sponsored by the city of Barcelona and his painting was acquired by the Barcelona Museum of Modern Art for its permanent collection. In 1957 he had his first solo exhibition at the Layetana Galleries in Barcelona. In 1959, after serving in the Spanish army, Alvar won a scholarship to the Institute French from Paris. In 1960, Alvar met Juan Fuentes, director of Galerie Drouant in Paris. After Fuentes sold Alvar's first set of paintings within a week, Alvar signed a contract with the gallery. Around this time Alvar married his childhood sweetheart, Rosella Berenguer, who came to live in Paris with him. He was invited to join the School of Paris, a group of the best young artists in Spain, organized by the Galerie Charpentier. In Paris in the 1960s, he exhibited with other prestigious Spanish artists including Miro, Dali and Picasso. In 1962, the Monede Gallery in New York presented Alvar's work in its first exhibition in the United States. In 1963, Alvar produced his first original lithographs for a personal exhibition at the Galerie Drouant. He became known to art collectors for his original lithographs and exhibited regularly throughout the United States, Europe, Canada and Japan. Between 1975 and 1990, his creative efforts focused primarily on his lithographic works. After ten years in Paris, he returned to Spain where he has lived and worked out of his studio until today. At the age of seventy, Alvar moved from lithography and returned to painting in the form of large-scale paintings encompassing a range of subjects from ethereal interiors to biblical stories. In 2001, he was commissioned to design a public mixed media mural of the four seasons for Tiana, a suburb of Barcelona. In 2003 he was commissioned to create a permanent public installation in the Plaza de Mallorquines, opposite the train station, in Montgat, Spain, a suburb of Barcelona; he designed an 18-foot sculpture titled “Mediterranea.” In 2008 he was commissioned to create a sculpture of the Catalan cellist Pablo Casals which stands in the Boulogne Billancourt district of Paris. [1] [2] Alvar works in watercolor, oil, ceramics, prints, sculpture, lithography, graphite drawings, murals, and monuments. His works have been exhibited in more than 40 museums (exhibitions and permanent collections) and more than 95 galleries and museums across the United States, Europe and Japan Type:Lithograph Genre:Art Deco Characteristics:Signed Theme:Fashion