ONE OF THE MANY JOYS of visiting London’s commercial art galleries is, apart from seeing the works of art on display, viewing the architecture of the galleries. Today, the 1st of Aoril 2023, we made a brief visit to the Bernard Jacobson Gallery in Mayfair’s Duke Street St James. Most of the exhibition space is in the basement. However, who ever designed the place has done something both spectacular and intelligent. Part of the ceiling of the basement has been removed to reveal above it a two or three storey high lightwell,which admits ample daylight to augment the artificial illumination in the rest of the basement.

The exhibition we viewed, which continues until the 28th of April 2023, is of paintings by the German artist Bernd Koberling (born 1938). His large works, executed in a variety of materials, are colorful abstracts. Even though they are abstracts, they bring to mind plants and other natural phenomena including reflections in watery surfaces.

I liked the pictures, but could not help being distracted by the gallery’s eye-catching design.