Alvar Sunol Munoz Ramos Still Life With Fish

Oil on canvas depicting a still life with fish, signed lower left Alvar (for Sunol Alvar Munoz Ramos, born in 1935). P rovenance: Galerie Drouant-David, 52 rue Fbg Saint-Honoré Paris. Inventory number 57E. Vicente Piera Gorcega 28B Barcelona chassis. Dimensions of the canvas 54x73 cm Total dimensions, with frame, 75x95 cm. 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 to the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Jorge in Barcelona at the age of 17. At 18, he won the Young Painter's 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 personal exhibition in the Layetana galleries in Barcelona. In 1959, after serving in the Spanish Army, Alvar won a scholarship to the French Institute in Paris. In 1960, Alvar met Juan Fuentes, director of the Galerie Drouant in Paris. After Fuentes sold Alvar's first set of paintings in a week, Alvar signed a contract with the gallery. It was around this time that Alvar married his childhood girlfriend, 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 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 his 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 across the United States, Europe, Canada and Japan. Between 1975 and 1990 his creative efforts focused mainly on his lithographic works. After ten years in Paris, he returned to Spain where he lived and worked outside his studio until today. At the age of seventy, Alvar switched from lithography and returned to painting in the form of large-scale paintings encompassing a range of subjects from ethereal interiors to biblical accounts. In 2001 he was commissioned to design a mixed public fresco of the four seasons for Tiana, a suburb of Barcelona. In 2003 he was commissioned to create a permanent public installation in 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 by Catalan cellist Pablo Casals which is located in the Boulogne Billancourt district of Paris. [1] [2] Alvar works in watercolors, oils, 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.