Focus 4

Artists: Serge Chermayeff, Maxwell Fry, Naum Gabo, Frank Lloyd Wright et al.
Authors: Maxwell Fry, Naum Gabo et al. 
Publisher: Lund Humphries 
Date: Summer 1939 
Condition: A very rare item, this example is generally in good condition, the printed card front cover shows minor creases to the top and bottom and some handling marks, and the owner's name in faded ink, the back cover has a water stain and some very faint pencil doodles. The spiral plastic binding is still tight, complete and working well. There is one loss - an image of the living room at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin has been removed. 

Only four issues of this interesting modernist architectural magazine were ever produced, and, owing no doubt to the imminent outbreak of WWII, this was the last. 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 across the issues 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 includes several plans for planned developments, book reviews, an article on Frank Lloyd Wright's recent lectures (see here for the publication that recorded these), some very interesting adverts and a very topical report on ARP developments. It would not be long before those were to be put to the test...

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