Born in Montgat near Barcelona, Catalunya, in 1935,
he studied at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Jorge in Barcelona, won the Young Painter s Prize in 1956, which led to his first one-man show in Barcelona in 1957.The following year the Institute Francais awarded him the First Prize of the Circulo Maillol - a scholarship to Paris.This led to an Ecole de Paris group show at the Galerie Chapentier, various salons, and finally to a painting contract with the Galerie Drouant, which gave Alvar his first one-man show of paintings in Paris in 1963, and which have been repeated every two or three years since then.Besides shows in France and Spain, Alvar has exhibited in New York, Tokyo, New Orleans, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, as well as in Sweden, Switzerland, Tel Aviv, London, and Alexandria.His works are represented in several American museums and have won the Acquisition Prize of the Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona