In 1921, the philosopher Walter Benjamin paid 1,000 marks for Paul Klee’s Angelus Novus (The Angel of History), and hung it on the wall of his Berlin office, where it soon became his most treasured possession. He took it with him into exile in France, where, before his death by suicide in 1940, he bequeathed it to the writer Georges Bataille.
From there, it fell into the hands of the great pessimist philosopher Theodor W. Adorno before ultimately ending up in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Now, the small aquarelle on paper forms the centrepiece of ‘The Angel of History’ at the Bode Museum, an exhibition that quietly marks 80 years since the end of World War II, by gathering other angels burned or damaged during the war from Berlin’s museums.
“It’s exceptional that Angelus Novus has been loaned to us,” says Neville Rowley, the curator. “It’s incredibly fragile and it took painstaking negotiations for them to let it go.” The floating angel, sharp-toothed, geometric and weighed down by drooping eyes, makes for an unlikely focal point, especially considering how little-known the work was in Klee’s own lifetime. “In one of his last great works, Benjamin describes the angel being propelled backward into the future by a tempest, seeing only ruins before him, unable to save those in his path,” says Rowley.
The exhibition features a number of angelic works, including a full scale, 2-metre-high recreation of a lost painting by Caravaggio, Saint Matthew and the Angel (1602). “It was acquired by the King of Prussia in 1815, after it was rejected by the patron of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome,” Rowley explains. “It will be a revelation for those who have only seen small photographs of it before. In a way, it reflects Benjamin’s concept of ‘aura’ – inviting us to see history through his lens while telling a story all its own.”
Caravaggio’s masterpiece was destroyed in a bunker fire in Friedrichshain, in 1945, alongside 434 other artworks. “It was like losing an entire museum,” laments Rowley, who has tried to keep his exhibition small and pared back. “We’re not overdoing it; there will only be 10 artworks alongside Benjamin’s original manuscript and excerpts from Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire. That film captures the ambiguity of the destroyed city of Berlin,” he says. “Ruins can look depressing and deeply sad but absolutely beautiful too.”
- Bode Museum, Am Kupfergraben 3, Mitte. The Angel of History, May 8 – July 13, details.
