Leonfelden 1878 – 1936 Stockerau
He attended craft school in Linz, studied at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts (1899–1902) under Karl Karger and Koloman Moser, and at the Munich Academy under Ludwig Herterich. Member of the "Wiener Kunst im Hause" association at whose 1903 exhibition he showed some posters. In 1906, he founded Wiener Mosaikwerkstätte (Vienna mosaic workshop), which specialized in mosaics made of different materials (glass, ceramics, marble, enamel, stone and metal), and in 1919 he founded Edelglas-, Mosaik- und Emailwerkstätte (glass, mosaic and enamel workshop) in Stockerau, Lower Austria. From 1906–12, he participated in furnishing the Steinhof church in Vienna with window glazing (designed by Koloman Moser) as well as 84-square-metre mosaics around the altar (designed by Rudolf Jettmar). Palais Stoclet in Brussels was decorated with a mosaic frieze designed by Gustav Klimt and some mosaics designed by Forstner himself. In Bohemia and Moravia, the artist designed the tomb of baron Chiari in Šumperk and the mosaics at the Bruntál grammar school (1913) and at Hell pharmacy in Opava.
Exhibitions: Brno, 1905 (posters), Kunstschau Wien, 1908.
Forstner worked for the following companies: Geyling (glazings, mosaics), Berger (posters), Backhausen (textiles), Prag-Rudniker (textiles, cushions) and Wiener Werkstätte (postcards).
Ref.: H. Fuchs, Die österreichischen Maler, vol. 1, K 98; Gmeiner/Pirhofer, Der Österreichische Werkbund, 1985, p. 226