Focus 3

Artists: Alvar Aalto, Maxwell Fry, Ben Nicholson et al. 
Authors: J.L.Martin et al.
Publisher: Lund Humphries 
Date: Spring 1939 
Condition: A very rare item, this copy is in decent condition internally and the plastic spiral binding is complete and still functioning pretty well. The covers show some rubbing and handling marks and minor chips and nicks but are generally quite tidy. The front cover has the owner's name in faded ink at the top, and the verso has a very small and faint architectural plan sketched in pencil!

Only four issues of this interesting modernist architectural magazine were ever produced, owing no doubt to the outbreak of WWII, and thus they are rather rare to see now. Essentially a kind of student magazine, it was produced by students from the Architectural Association and the production values are actually extremely high. Well-illustrated, the articles cover a range of topics and the contributors or subjects through the issues include Le Corbusier, Gerhard Kallmann, Justin Blanco-White, Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, Naum Gabo, Sigfried Giedion, Alvar Aalto, and others. 

This issue is of particular interest to Modern British collectors in that it includes J.L.Martin's essay Architecture and the Painter which focusses on Ben Nicholson and includes three reproductions of his work, including a very beautiful coloured plate. Interestingly, it also includes in the book review section a long note on the recently published Le Corbusier Oeuvre Complete volume 3, a copy of which we also have for sale elsewhere on this site!

A stylish and very rare object, interesting on many levels and filled with source material for anyone interested in the paths of modernism in Britain in the late 1930s.