The Angel of History Is Stuck in Jerusalem

Hyperallergic reports that Paul Klee’s “Angelus Novus” (1920) is missing—temporarily replaced by a reproduction—from the Jewish Museum’s exhibition “Paul Klee: Other Possible Worlds” because the original has been delayed from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem due to “current conditions affecting international transport.” The work is closely associated with cultural critic Walter Benjamin, who bought it in 1921 and later described it as the “Angel of History” in his 1940 “Theses on the Philosophy of History,” written amid Nazi persecution; Benjamin died by suicide in 1940 in Spain while fleeing deportation. The exhibition focuses on Klee’s political art and pursuit of artistic freedom in the 1930s, though it also includes earlier works dating back to 1903, and the article argues that “Angelus Novus” and Benjamin’s text take an outsized role in framing a show ostensibly centered on Klee’s 1930s output. The piece contrasts Klee’s exile to Switzerland after Nazi attacks with Benjamin’s more precarious flight through Europe.

Read the full article at Hyperallergic