FOCUS. 4 Vols. [ALL ISSUES PUBLISHED]

London: Percy Lund Humphries & Co Ltd, 1938. First edition. Octavo. 61 (v), 96 (ix), 112 (i, xii), 101 (xvii, i)pp. Original celluloid spiral-bound wraps with graphic typography in black and brown, blue, red and green. Published by students at London's Architectural Association in 1938 and 1939 in conjunction with Percy Lund Humphries. Complete as issued. Dispite its short run the magazine played an influential role in the development of architectural modernism in the UK.

Number I Summer 1938

Printed and Published for FOCUS by Percy Lund Humphries. Cover design by Oliver Cox. Contributions by Le Corbusier: "If I had to teach you architectur." With two full page architectural drawings. Facsimile signature of "Le Corbusier" at end of essay. A "Town Plan" for Faringdon, Berkshire by "A group of A.A. students" with two color double page map, and architectural drawing of Service Road and Terrace Housing on verso. A contribution on the entrance hall reconstruction of the Winchester Hospital with two b/w phoos and archtiectural plan. The Timber House by architect Max Lock also with b/w photos and architectural plan. The Association of Architects' Surveyors and Technical Assistants is reviewd by Justin Blanco-White, Two book reviews and five pages with illustrated advertisements at rear. Minor blemishes, underling and one marginal mark in first book review. Short note inked to bottom of last ad.
Light smudgin of rubbing of wraps.

Number 2 Winter 1938

Contains an editorial expressing surprise over the unexpected wide reception to the first issue, within fourteen days of publication, with the press"pulling their legs" for including thoughts relating to the fact that 'the publishers' were born in the war in the first issue. This issue reviews Czech architecture with b/w photographs, the Gropius and Breuer House at Lincoln, Massachusetts,also with photographs and architectural plan, a Moholy-Nagy contribution on the education at the Bauhaus, a timer house with b/w photographs and plan, a detailed contribution on working with plastics, other illustrated projets, a review of two publications on Le Corbusier by Tim Bennett, and various other book reviews. Two pages of detailed credits for five architectural projects and closing with nine pages of related advertisements, designed and illustrated in adequat manner. Spiral with break at top third, minimal loss, covers rubbed with minor wear along edges.

Number 3 Spring 1939

With contributions by Alvar Aalto on the Sunila pulp mill and its housing settlement at the south coast of Finland, illustrated with b/w photographs, a topographical map and architectural plans. On page four the editors feature a reproduction of a postcard of the Stuttgart Weissenhof settlement with superimposed comic figures of "savages" by "pious Nazis." The caption underneath the postcard details the achitects involved in the project. Bruno Taut's death is remembered in a short feature among other editorial notes. Siegfried Giedion's letter to the editors of FOCUS on "The Dangers and Advatanges of Luxury", from Harvard University on January 31, 1930, is printed with two architectural drawings and a photograph of a Frank Lloyd Wright project. A contribution on architecture and the painter features works by Ben Nicholson, one of the in color. Most contributions are illustrated with photographs and drawings. Includes book reviews. Pages 87 to 96 feature a Report of Students' Sub-Committe on the School System, printed to yellow paper, followed by commentary and twelve pages of illustrated advertisements. Publisher's gray subscription page beforeadvertisements. Spiral binding intact with wraps lightly rubbed.

Number 4. Summer 1939

Commemorating the work of Howard Cleminson (1918-1939) with architectural drawings and plans at front, this issue contains illustrated contribution on the Bauhaus, 1919-1928, by Robert Townsend, Siegfried Giedion and Arthur Korn, and an illustrated contribution on Frank Lloyd Wright by E. J. Carter and Naum Gabo. Includes a photo-illustrated essay on a "Model Community Centre, Social Services Exhibit, British Pavillion at the New York World's Fair, 1939." Most contributions are illustrated, including the Planning Project of "Port of Bristol Development by the architects, R. D. Hammett, J. R. Penoyre and J. M. Wheeler. With sizable editorial on the first year of publishing FOCUS, book reviews and an extensive section on architectural education. Seventeen pages of illustrated advertisements at rear. Spiral binding intact with minor blemishes and covers lightly rubbed with minor wear along edges. Previous owner's name, and "N.Y.'43" inked to title page, and small dealer sticker of Wittenborn Art Books on inside back cover. Small red printer's stamp at rear. Lund Humphries, starting out as an offshoot of a Yorkshire printing firm known for typographic innovations in the late 19th century and became one of the formost English art publisher of the 20thcentury. Colaborations with Man Ray in 1934, Man Ray exhibited at the Lund Humphries gallery for the first and only time in England, Jan Tschichold in 1935 and Rudolf Koch in 1936. Tschichold designed the Humphries' "Penrose Annual" in 1938. In 1939 the lectures of visiting architect Frank Lloyd Wright were published verbatim.