Michael Forster was born in 1907 in Kolkata and spent his childhood in India before moving to England to pursue his artist education. He studied at Lancing College in Sussex and furthered his training at the Central School of Arts and Crafts (now Central St. Martins – University of the Arts) in London, and at the Académie Colarossi in Paris. Hoping to avoid the hardships of the Great Depression, Forster moved to Toronto In 1927.

 

Forster’s abstract paintings, painted in acrylic, were deeply influenced by the Surrealist movement and explorations of his subconscious. The surrealist paintings in the 1938 Canadian National Exhibition, and his later discovery of Jean-Paul Riopelle and the Canadian Automatistes, all had a lasting impact on Forster’s work.

 

Forster drew inspiration from the natural world—particularly the sky, and described his process as being guided by the subconscious. His goal was to capture the interplay of light and patterns in nature and to translate these colours and textures into abstracted forms. The importance he attributed to colour, coupled with his attention to the materiality of paint itself resulted in distinctive surface textures that enhanced the visual experience of his work. His canvases, regardless of size, exhibit rich variations in texture and colour, drawing viewers into their luminous presence.

 

During World War II, Forster served as one of fourteen Official War Artists for Canada. He spent the summer of 1944 on a merchant marine ship off Halifax and then joined the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve. His wartime experiences were captured through photographs, which he later used as reference materials to complete paintings back in his studio. Many of these wartime works are now held in the Canadian War Museum’s collection.

 

Forster’s work has been exhibited in museums worldwide, including a significant retrospective at the Mexico’s Museo Nacional de Arte Moderno, at the National Gallery in Washington, the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the British Museum in London, and the São Paulo Museum in Brazil. His work can be found in important collections such as the Agnes Etherington Centre in Kingston, Ontario, the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, the Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, and the British Museum in London.