Pedro Álvarez Castelló ~ Tango Argentino

Pedro Reinaldo Álvarez Castelló (1967-2004) was a Cuban painter who rose to prominence during Cuba's Special Period. Alvarez was a native of Havana, Cuba. He studied art at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro" from 1980-1985 and the Instituto Superior Pedagogico Enrique Jose Varona from 1986-1991. He was a member of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba. He married a Cuban woman and had a child. When he wasn't travelling to promote his work, he divided his time between Malaga, Spain and Havana.

Álvarez works sizzle with the heat of the dramatic dances he depicts. An artist whose work largely focuses on dance themes, such as the tango, he was originally employed in electrical circuitry until his all-consuming passion for dancing compelled him to express it in painting. A prolific artist, Álvarez worked at a blazing pace, expressed in swift, sweeping brushstrokes, which has become more leisurely following a move to rural Spain two years ago.

According to John Becker, the attorney designated by Arizona State University to help distribute Álvarez's work after his death, Álvarez and his wife later divorced, then they each married Spanish spouses with the intention of eventually divorcing their new spouses and remarrying each other. On February 12, 2004, Álvarez died after jumping out of the fifth-floor window of a hotel in Tempe, Arizona just five days after the beginning of a major solo exhibition of his work, "Landscape in the Fireplace", at the Arizona State University Art Museum. Police found no evidence of drug or alcohol use. He didn't leave a suicide note, and his death was a shock to people who had spoken with him just hours before.