Mabel Alvarez, 93; Noted Painter

Mabel Alvarez, whose portraits and other paintings date to the early days of Los Angeles art history, died March 13 at a Los Angeles convalescent home. She was 93 and most recently was honored in 1984 when she was the first artist chosen by the Laguna Beach Museum of Art for a retrospective of historical California artists.

Born near Honolulu, her work attracted attention as early as 1913 and she became the subject of several newspaper and magazine reviews in the 1920s.

In 1923, her work was shown at the Chicago Art Institute and in 1933, she exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Her last exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which began displaying her portraits nearly 70 years ago, was in 1980.

Her brother was Dr. Walter Alvarez, a nationally known doctor and medical writer who died in 1978, and her survivors include a nephew, Dr. Luis Alvarez, the retired University of California Nobel laureate, and a sister, Florence Spaulding of Los Angeles.