Description
#31653 "Suite titled "Renaixant" (Renaissance) of four framed, original & embossed lithograph prints on Arches by Alvar Sunol Munoz-Ramos, pencil signed & numbered 122/185. circa 1977. Featuring surrealist scenes with gothic architecture & ghosts / angels / muses / musicians & doves. Alvar is known for his technical expertise. He is passionate about his concept of el oficio, the commitment to his vocation & appreciation for the traditional artistic values bequeathed by the masters. Renaissance artists, especially Piero della Francesca, Vermeer & Balthus, are particularly admired by him. He views his work as an inheritance from & devotion to Catalonia, specifically Romanesque art, yet imbued with a modern sensibility. His themes, though varied, remain steadfast in their revelations about the human condition & complexities, about love & peace. Time is a prominent & recurring theme, referencing history & art history. Alvar Suñol Munoz-Ramos was born on January 29, 1935, in Montgat, a Catalan fishing village on the Mediterranean coast near Barcelona. He started painting oils at age twelve, & at age seventeen was accepted at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Jorge, the prestigious fine art school in Barcelona. Before graduating from the Belles Artes, he gave his first solo ex- hibition at Galleries Layetana in Barcelona in 1957. Alvar also won the Bolsa de Viaje Alhambra de Granada, a summer scholarship study trip to Granada. At age 18, he entered a painting in a competition for the Young Painters Prize sponsored by the City of Barcelona. His painting won the grand prize, & it is now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona, Spain. Due to his early artistic successes, Alvar received many invitations for shows in other Spanish cities. During his military service, he submitted one of his canvases for the Institut Francais an- nual painting competition in Barcelona. The Institut Francais awarded him the grand prize & a scholarship to study in Paris. Alvar arrived in Paris to paint in 1959. He met Juan Fuentes, a fellow Spaniard & director of the prestigious Parisian Galerie Drouant. Fuentes encouraged Alvar in his painting & brought Alvar's first group of Paris oil paintings to the gallery. Fuentes' gallery sold the paintings in one week. in 1960 Alvar returned to Barcelona to marry his childhood sweetheart, Rosella Berenguer. They returned to Paris & lived there for ten years. Alvar's paintings were exhibited in the United States for the first time at the Monede Gallery, New York in 1962. Alvar produced his first original lithographs for a one-man show at Galerie Drouant in 1963. Since a decisive solo exhibition in Paris in 1963, Alvar has exhibited regularly throughout Europe, the United States, Canada & Japan. For a comprehensive list of Alvar's museum & private exhibitions, please see the additional in- formation provided. Alvar's hometown of Tiana hosts one of his permanent public installations. in September
