High Desert Assemblage Artist

Born in Snow Hill, Alabama, in 1917, sculptor Noah Purifoy lived and worked most of his life in Los Angeles and Joshua Tree, California, where he died in 2004. First director of the Watts Towers Art Center in the 1960s, Purifoy dedicated himself to the found object-creating artwork made entirely from junked materials-and to using art as a tool for social change. In 1989, Purifoy moved his practice to the Mojave Desert, creating a ten-acre Outdoor Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Sculpture on the desert floor. The Noah Purifoy Foundation maintains and preserves Purifoy's museum and legacy. Recent group exhibitions include Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in Painting and Sculpture: 1950-1970, J. Paul Getty Museum; Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and MoMA PS1, New York; and Civic Virtue: The Impact of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and the Watts Towers Arts Center, Watts Towers Art Center, Los Angeles. In Spring 2014, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) will present a traveling Noah Purifoy Retrospective.