Noah Purifoy

A key figure in assemblage art, Southern Californian art history and the chronicling of the African- American experience, Noah Purifoy was born in 1917 in Snow Hill, Alabama, where his family lived in the atmosphere of the Jim Crow South.

Graduating with a degree in teaching, he served in the Navy during the Second World War as a carpenter’s mate and went on to earn a graduate degree in social services administration. These elements are useful in understanding the trajectory of Purifoy’s art practice as it emerged in the 1950s and ‘60s.

Purifoy lived briefly in Cleveland, Ohio, after receiving his graduate degree, but then moved even further from the South, to Los Angeles, in 1950. Three years later he became the first African American to enroll in Chouinard Art Institute, the predecessor of the California Institute of the Arts, and graduated with a BFA in 1956. His pedagogical

and social work background came into play in his roles as a founding director of the Watts Art Center and as a founding member of the California Arts Council, in the latter of which he was instrumental in creating art in the schools and art in prisons programs.

While always operating from a social conscience, Purifoy found himself radicalized by the Watts riots of 1965. He became an organizing member of an exhibition of protest art, 66 Signs of Neon, that was constructed from the debris of the riots and that traveled widely to educational institutions. Purifoy’s own piece, Shelter, was a sizable installation and may have heralded his move to the desert, an environment in which he could build at scale.

Following stints teaching art and a return to social work, Purifoy took up an invitation from his friend, artist Deborah Brewer, to move to Joshua Tree in 1989 at the age of 72. From 1989 until his death in 2004, he created a series of assemblage/ environmental works made of found objects, an array scattered over 7.5 acres that continues to move and inspire viewers. In his vast desert studio, Purifoy experimented with concepts of sculpture within sculpture and developed his interest in the effects of the weather on the works. Some of the pieces are quite didactic, particularly on the topic of race, but most are open to a variety of readings, including critiques of consumerism and the sociopolitical establishment.

Purifoy is sometimes depicted as an outsider artist—a characterization that, given his background and experience, is obviously untrue as well as tinged with racial prejudice. Nods to artists such as Mondrian, Nevelson, Picasso, Heizer and Smithson can be found in what is now the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum. I also see a parallel between Purifoy and Donald Judd, both of whom headed into the desert to make the work they wanted to make, away from the noise of the art market and primarily for their own benefit, leaving testaments to what the human spirit can create. Today, no visit to Joshua Tree is complete without a pilgrimage to the museum for an education and a dose of inspiration.

Note: Tours of the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum are conducted only by the Noah Purifoy Foundation and are therefore not part of Joshua Tree Cultural Expeditions mentioned below.

Directions: Take Sunburst Ave. north from Hwy. 62, turn right on Golden St., left on Border Ave., right at Aberdeen Dr. and left again where the pavement runs out. Proceed a short way to Blair Ln. and make a right onto Blair to park in designated parking spots. Please note that a short portion of the final leg is on dirt road.

Bernard Leibov is Founder/Director of BoxoPROJECTS, a residency and programming initiative in Joshua Tree, and co-founder of the Joshua Treenial, a weekend of installations, performance and community-building that celebrates the area. Bernard also gives guided tours of the local cultural highlights through Joshua Tree Cultural Expeditions (jtculturalexpeditions.com). Prior to coming to Joshua Tree in 2011, he was Deputy Director of the Judd Foundation and exhibited artists from Joshua Tree in New York City.