At the age of eighteen, Alvar won the Alhambra de Granada grant, a summer scholarship that allowed him to travel throughout Spain and work on his craft.  It was during this time that Alvar created the technical foundation for his work.  Returning home, he entered and won the Young Painter’s Prize for the City of Barcelona, and his piece was added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona.  His highly-prized works continued to flourish, and, in 1962, Alvar’s paintings were exhibited in the United States for the first time at the Monede Gallery in New York City.  So well received was his work that Alvar, the following year, produced his first lithographs.