Untitled (II)

In this painting on paper, Cohen – who describes himself as ‘a storyteller and a creator of pictorial theatre’ – contrasts different organic forms, delineated in black against white, and highlighted with red, to suggest a sense of change, evoking ideas such as cellular division and the process of evolution. The artist has said that through the combination of such shapes he hoped to create an overall image that was new and unique, imbued with different types of visual tension.

Five works on paper by Cohen are held in the Ben Uri Collection, where his work has been shown in exhibitions including Jewish Artists at the Slade: Exhibition of Works from the Ben Uri Collection (1992). In 1994–5 Ben Uri hosted a major survey exhibition Bernard Cohen 35 Years of Drawing, which toured to Norwich, Bristol and Birmingham and was opened in Dean Street by Sir Kenneth Robinson, the then Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain.