In Exodus, Gabriel Cohen offers a post-Holocaust perspective on the Passover narrative and the subject of exile. Dividing the canvas into horizontal bands, the artist separates the subjugated from their armed rulers. Although he distorts the scale of the black-unformed SS guards and the Jewish prisoners by reducing them to stick figures, the danger lurking in this surrealistic landscape remains palpable.

Born in Paris in 1933 to parents of Sephardic origin, Gabriel Cohen spent the war years in France hidden on a farm. In 1949 the family immigrated to Israel and settled in Jerusalem, where Cohen worked as a garbage collector, house painter, and diamond cutter. He began to paint at the age of forty, while holding a job as a night watchman, and sold his first painting on the street. In addition to depictions of the Holocaust and biblical and contemporary themes, the artist is known for his exotic architectural visions.