In 1962 Cohen was taken on at London's Brook Street Gallery, which specialised in modernist work by artists including Picasso, Derain, Calder, Arp, Sonia Delaunay, Paul Klee, Henry Moore, Eileen Agar and Victor Vasarely.
For his first solo exhibition there in 1963 Cohen chose the theme of the commedia dell'arte - the Italian theatrical tradition including figures such as Harlequin and Punch. In the best-known paintings on this theme by Tiepolo or Watteau, the figures are typically presented as light-hearted, in a carnivaleque or bucolic spirit; Picasso's are contemplative, sometimes melancholy, but calm. Cohen explores darker themes of anger, desire, deceit, and betrayal, as well as expressions of joy and vitality, all treated with an existential rawness and depth.
