José Luis Álvarez (artist)

In 1959, Álvarez joined the faculty of the National School of Arts where he flourished for 27 years until he retired to continue working in his workshop in Antigua, Guatemala.

In 1958, he returned to Guatemala City to resume restoring works that had been delayed for over half a century, carving, gilding and parts embodied colonial style. He also devoted himself to the restoration of paintings and antique images. He taught privately at the Galería Ríos, a gallery founded by Miguel Ángel Ríos (1914–1991) in the early 1950s.

In 1956, the Guatemalan Commission for UNESCO organized and underwrote the restoration of several paintings from the Guatemalan colonial era. Projects were carried out in specialized workshops in the Capuchin Convent in Antigua. The restorations were led by a mission headed by a British expert sent by UNESCO, Helmut Ruhemann (1891–1973), and had as national partners to Carlos Morales, Luis Álvarez, and his son, Luis Alberto Álvarez. The Ministry of Education (es), directors of national museums and the directors of the Department of Fine Arts facilitated its development. The restored works were exhibited at the National School for the Arts. UNESCO bestowed Álvarez with a restorer diploma in 1956.

In 1948, he was commissioned to help restore the National Palace of Guatemala and the Church of San Juan del Obispo. He restored altar pieces and colonial paintings. He also remade missing gilded gold leaf pieces for the colonial assemblies.

In 1938 he won second prize in the National Competition Fair November. He also won first, second and third prizes at the Fiesta de los Morenos in Mixco, and won multiple prizes in Quetzaltenango. In the Arturo Martínez competition, won the first prize three consecutive times.

José Luis Álvarez (3 June 1917 Guatemala, Guatemala – 5 February 2012 Antigua Guatemala) was a Guatemalan artist who, from 1976 until his death, lived and painted in Antigua. He became known as the one of the best landscape artists from Guatemala, and was part of a generation of prolific artists who, as exponents of national art, defined the Guatemalan School. Álvarez developed a distinguished wide impasto technique, using the spatula, and a great delicacy in the use of color.

At 14, Álvarez was in a workship of commercial painting. At 15, he began studying at the National School for the Arts in Guatemala City. His teachers included Humberto Garavito (1897–1970), Enrique Acuña Orantes (1876–1946), Antonio Tejeda Fonseca (1908–1966). Federico Wilhelm Schaeffer (es) (1887–1957), Óscar González Goyrí (1887–1974), and Rafael Yela Günther (1888–1942). At 16, he moved to the workshop called "El Tigre." There, he designed labels and tags with drawings to the decanter and Tabacalera Nacional. He rapidly adapted to his new job and was mentored by the shop teacher Flavio Salazar.