The Jewish Museum is presenting the first U.S. museum exhibition to explore Paul Klees powerful creative output from the final unsettled decade of his life. Paul Klee: Other Possible Worlds traces the Swiss-German artists departure from the Bauhaus and his experience throughout the political upheaval of the 1930s prior to his death in 1940, providing a new basis for understanding his socio-political perspective and commitment to artistic freedom. The exhibition features some 100 paintings and drawings, among them select works from Klees earlier practice, including his rarely exhibited and iconic Angelus Novus (1920). This broader context dramatically frames his late practice, during which Klees lifelong individuality and imagination prevail as a form of resistance to Nazi ideology and persecution. On view through Sunday, July 26, Paul Klee: Other Possible Worlds is curated by Mason Klein, senior curator emeritus, and organized by the Jewish Museum in collaboration with the Zentrum Paul Klee and the Kunstmuseum Bern. Paul Klee: Other Possible Worlds provides a critical recontextualization of the artists practice, illustrating Klees commitment to innovative artistic creation in response to the horrors of the 1930s, said James S. Snyder, Helen Goldsmith Menschel director. Many recognize Klee for his highly inventive approach to abstraction, but fewer are familiar with his graphic, and often metaphorical, depictions of the rising fascism of the period. The exhibition also reflects the Jewish Museums ongoing commitment to showcasing the work of artists engaging with the pressing artistic, social, and political challenges of their times, furthered Snyder. Born in 1879 in Switzerland to a music teacher and singer, Klee possessed early creative proclivities, initially training in the violin before shifting to the visual arts, among other disciplines, during his teenage years. He was involved with a range of burgeoning artistic movements during his early career and went on to establish an esteemed reputation during a decade-long tenure at the Bauhaus. In 1931, Klee resigned his position in Dessau and was offered another at the academy in Dsseldorf, where he sought to free himself from the demands of lecturing and to concentrate on painting. However, during Hitlers ascent to power, the National Socialists deemed Klees art subversive and degenerate and dismissed him from his position at the Dsseldorf Academy, referring to him as a Galician Jew. Forced into exile as an immigrant in his country of birth, Klee abandoned his uplifting chromatic style of painting as he confronted the harsh terrain of fascism and soon, in 1935, the effects of scleroderma, a then-fatal autoimmune disease. The exhibit traces the progression of the artists work as he experienced the rise of fascism during the final decade of his life, illuminating his relentless search for new methods of expressing social critique, non-conformism, mythopoetic thinking, and an evolving approach to developing a new vocabulary for confronting the horrors of political persecution and violence. Other Possible Worlds reveals Klees enduring commitment to creative freedom, to making deeply personal work that engages with multiple perspectives, including aesthetics, philosophy, and spirituality, noted Mason Klein, senior curator emeritus and curator of the exhibition. During a period of growing political repression and following his personal expulsion from the Dsseldorf Academy, his work turned to both subtle and overt explorations of the impact of fascist rule and political violence. The selection of works on view showcases the complexities of Klees often-overlooked late work, not only in terms of the creative resurgence of his ever-evolving artistic lexicon, but also his ever-relevant exploration of the tension between what is and what could be, ended Klein. On view concurrently in the museums newly renovated collection galleries is a focused installation dedicated to Walter Benjamin, the German philosopher and cultural critic who acquired Klees Angelus Novus when it was created in 1920 and whose thesis on the impact of the past on the future was inspired by this iconic work. Walter Benjamin and the Edges of Photography highlights Benjamins engagement with the photographic medium, featuring photographs by artists he researched during his lifetime, including Karl Blossfeldt, Germaine Krull, Lszl Moholy-Nagy, Man Ray, and August Sander. To learn more, call 212-423-3200 or visit www.thejewishmuseum.org.