Noah S. Purifoy (August 17, 1917 – March 5, 2004) was an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

visual artist and sculptor, co-founder of the Watts Towers Art Center, and creator of the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum. He lived and worked most of his life in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

and

Joshua Tree ''Yucca brevifolia'' is a plant species belonging to the genus ''Yucca''. It is tree-like in habit, which is reflected in its common names: Joshua tree, yucca palm, tree yucca, and palm tree yucca. This monocotyledonous tree is native to the ar ...

, California. Purifoy was the first African American to enroll in

Chouinard Art Institute The Chouinard Art Institute was a professional art school founded in 1921 by Nelbert Murphy Chouinard (1879–1969) in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. In 1961, Walt and Roy Disney guided the merger of the Chouinard Art I ...

as a full-time student and earned his BFA in 1956, just before his fortieth birthday. He is best known for his assemblage sculpture, including a body of work made from charred debris and wreckage collected after the Watts Riots of August 1965.

"''I do not wish to be an artist. I only wish that art enables me to be.''" —Noah Purifoy, 1963 Noah Purifoy Foundation: About the artist
. accessed 3.13.2015

Early life and education

Purifoy was born in 1917 in

Snow Hill, Alabama Snow Hill is an unincorporated community in Wilcox County, Alabama, United States. Snow Hill has one site included on the National Register of Historic Places, the Snow Hill Normal and Industrial Institute. Snow Hill is referenced in the film ' ...

as one of thirteen siblings. Noah lived and worked most of his life in Los Angeles and Joshua Tree, California, where he died in 2004. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, he served with the United States Navy as a

Seabee , colors = , mascot = Bumblebee , battles = Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Cape Gloucester, Los Negros, Guam, Peleliu, Tarawa, Kwajalein, Saipan, Tinian, Iwo Jima, Philippin ...

, and as a veteran he was buried at the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery in

Rittman, Ohio Rittman is a city in Medina and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. All but a small portion of the city is in Wayne County, within commuting distance of Akron, Canton and Cleveland. The population was 6,131 at the 2020 census. Geograph ...

. Purifoy received an undergraduate degree from Alabama State Teachers College (now Alabama State University) in 1943 and a graduate degree in social services administration from

Atlanta University Clark Atlanta University (CAU or Clark Atlanta) is a private, Methodist, historically black research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Clark Atlanta is the first Historically Black College or University (HBCU) in the Southern United States. Fou ...

(now Clark Atlanta University) in 1948. Following graduation Noah took a position as a social worker in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

and in 1950 he moved to Los Angeles taking a job at the County Hospital. In 1953, Purifoy enrolled to attend the

(now

CalArts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...

). Purifoy was the first African American to enroll there as a full-time student and earned his BFA in 1956, just before his fortieth birthday.

''66 Signs of Neon''

In the months after the Watts Riots uprising of August 1965, Purifoy and artist Judson Powell organized the exhibition ''66 Signs of Neon'', composed of roughly 50 works of art made from salvaged materials as a way to "interpret the August event." The exhibition premiered at Markham Junior High School (April 3–9, 1966) with work by six artists and later traveled to nine state universities in California, eventually traveling to other venues throughout the United States. For 20 years following the uprising, Purifoy dedicated himself to the found object, and to using art as a tool for social change. He was cofounder of the Watts Towers Art Center, adjacent to Simon Rodia's landmark

Watts Towers The Watts Towers, Towers of Simon Rodia, or ''Nuestro Pueblo'' ("our town" in Spanish) are a collection of 17 interconnected sculptural towers, architectural structures, and individual sculptural features and mosaics within the site of the artis ...

in Watts, Los Angeles, California. Purifoy was on the

California Arts Council The California Arts Council is a state agency based in Sacramento, United States. Its eight council members are appointed by the Governor and the state Legislature. The agency's mission is to advance California through arts, culture and creativit ...

from the late 1970s through late 1980s, initiating programs such as Artists in Social Institutions, bringing art into the state prison system. He then moved to the southern Mojave Desert to create artworks.

Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum

In 1989, Purifoy moved to a friend's trailer in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...

, and over the last fifteen years of his life built what is now the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Sculpture Museum. Located on of open land near the town of

Joshua Tree, California Joshua Tree is a census-designated place (CDP) in San Bernardino County, California, United States. The population was 7,414 at the 2010 census. At approximately above sea level, Joshua Tree and its surrounding communities are located in the High ...

, the museum contains over one hundred works of art, including large scale assemblages, environmental sculptures, and

installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called ...

created by the artist between 1989 and 2004. While giving the appearance of a salvage yard with tires, bathroom fixtures, TVs, ragged clothes, toys and vacuum cleaners, each piece has a story to tell. One piece has a water fountain labeled “White” and a toilet labeled “Colored”. The museum is open to the public and is maintained and preserved by the Noah Purifoy Foundation, established in 1998.

Work and exhibitions

Two retrospectives of Purifoy's work have been organized. In 1997, the California African American Museum in Exposition Park mounted the first. In 2015, LACMA mounted a retrospective, relocating many of his works from the outdoor museum: ''Noah Purifoy: Junk Dada''. Purifoy's work has been included in seminal group exhibitions including ''Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture'', 1950-1970 (October 2011 - February 2012), Getty Center, Los Angeles, traveled to Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany (March – June 2012); ''Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980'' (October 2011 - January 2012), Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California, traveled to MOMA PS1, New York, New York (October 2012 – March 2013); ''Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power'', Tate Modern, London (July - October 2017); and ''Outliers and American Vanguard Art'' (January - May 2018), National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

References

External links