Inspired by the work of Mexican muralists José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, Irving Kriesberg based his paintings on both personal history and cultural heritage. In Jacob's Struggle, the traditional biblical story becomes a metaphor for moral struggles--both individual and societal--in the wake of World War II. Kriesberg fuses the figures of Jacob and the Angel in a spiraling maelstrom, focusing on the expression of conflict rather than on narration of the story.