TIRANA, March 4 – Paintings and drawings by early 20th century Austrian artist Leopold Forstner are being featured in an exhibition at the National Museum of History in Tirana.
Roughly 100 large-sized drawings, 50 photographs and many handicraft objects still preserved from Forstner’s journey in the Balkans in 1917 and 1918 have been put on display.
During 1917 and 1918 Leopold Forstner, a colleague of artists such as Gustav Klimt and Kolo Moser, had been traveling territories in today’s Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. In his capacity of officer of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he drew portraits of local inhabitants, took photos of national costumes and gathered handicraft as part of his mission to document the cultures of the Balkan peoples in the midst of World War I.
The exhibition will remain open to the public until March 15.
