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Noah Purifoy Outdoor Sculpture Museum, photo by Rick Granados ©2022
NPF is now a member of HAHS, the prestigious coalition of Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios
The Outdoor Sculpture Museum has been accepted into HAHS, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation! We join 54 other museums across the U.S., all homes and studios of esteemed American artists.
It is truly an honor to be included in the historically important and vital HAHS community, said Joseph S. Lewis, President of the Noah Purifoy Foundation, and look forward to the wider recognition of Noah Purifoy that this will bring. One of our key missions as a Foundation is to conserve and maintain Noah's Outdoor Sculpture Museum (Noah's 10-acre studio) and are very excited to join an organization which understands and promotes the historical significance of artist's creative spaces.
On August 17, 2022, Noah’s 105th birthday NPF participated in the HAHS Virtual Road Trip! Our presentation introduces the viewer to Noah’s multifaceted life, and showcases the work at the Outdoor Museum.
The Fire Next time (After James Baldwin) I, II, III
MoMA Acquires Noah’s Tombstones
The Fire Next Time (After James Baldwin) I, II, III, 1995, are tombstones from Noah’s early Joshua Tree days. We are so happy that they are now part of MoMA’s permanent collection!
Perhaps Baldwin in his words and Noah in his art reflect the Negro Spiritual that includes the lines: God gave Noah the rainbow sign/ No more water but fire next time.
--Sue A. Welsh, cofounder of NPF
Restoration, 1990’s
Installation shot of Restoration at the Blanton Museum of Art
Blanton Acquires Restoration
In December 2021 the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin acquired Noah’s epic assemblage Restoration, 1990’s. Along with this piece the Blanton has, in the last few years, acquired 11 other works by contemporary Black artists based in the U.S. The funds for these acquisitions came from an anonymous donor who wanted to make a “transformative gift of funds for the specific purpose of acquiring works by contemporary Black artists” and was “excited about supporting a university art museum - particularly one connected to the South”, according to an article by Jessica Fuentes in Glasstire.
These 12 works are now on view at the Blanton until September 2022 in the exhibit Assembly: New Acquisitions by Contemporary Black Artists.
Judson Powell during an art class at the Watts Towers Art Center
Judson and Noah at 66 Signs of Neon exhibition. Judson sits in front of Barrel and Plow, a collaboration between Judson and Noah
Judson Powell July 13, 1933 - February 8, 2021
It is with sadness that NPF announces the passing of Judson Powell, visual artist, musician, community activist and great friend and collaborator of Noah Purifoy.
Judson met Noah in 1964, and though he was an accomplished musician at the time, he chose to turn his creative energies toward the making of assemblage art. He became an important presence at the Watts Towers Art Center, teaching art classes to the children in the surrounding community. His collaboration with Noah on the 66 Signs of Neon traveling exhibition responded to the Watts uprising in 1965. Together they collected tons of detrius from the neighborhood and along with a number of other artists, created 66 pieces of artwork that traveled throughout the US and Germany.
In 1969 he founded the Communicative Arts Academy in Compton and brought in John Outterbridge as its director. The community based artist collective became the center of African American art and culture in California’s first majority Black city.
Below is Judson at the piano in Fertile Ground: Stories from the Watts Towers Arts Center 2005.
Noah Purifoy and Judson Powell with students at the Watts Towers Art Center
PBS/Artbound features Noah and fellow LA artists in “The Watts Towers Arts Center”
Using vintage photographs, videos and interviews of artists, cultural leaders, and Noah himself, this episode describes the creation of the Watts Towers Arts Center and what it has meant to the community surrounding it. Noah was its first director from 1962-64 and laid the groundwork for its programs with help from educator Sue Welsh and artist Judson Powell. Their focus on using the arts to educate and build self-esteem is still a guiding principle of the Center today.
“Noah contributed a huge foundation here in establishing the criteria for this place. He set the bar really really high and you know since then the other Art Center directors have carried on that level of professionalism”.
-Rosie Lee Hooks, Director of the Watts Towers Arts Center, 2012-present
Rags & Old Iron I (after Nina Simone), 1989
LACMA features Noah’s work in it’s UN FRAMED Series
While the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is temporarily closed due to the pandemic it is adding new educational content to its online channels. Make Art at Home - Assemblage features Noah’s artwork as inspiration to illustrate the art of assemblage.
This short piece asks “what makes art"?”, describes what assemblage art entails, and encourages the viewer to create their own personal works of art using found objects of their own!
Congratulations NPF!
Noah Purifoy Foundation was awarded an Arts Education Exposure grant from the California Arts Council for the second year to support our Urban Arts/Gil Friesen Art Day initiative!
The Noah Purifoy Foundation Urban Arts Initiative provides an arts educational experience to urban middle school students. Established in 2015 the NPF one-day arts exposure program was named in honor of NPF Emeritus Trustee Gil Friesen (1937-2013). Students learn about the creative life and work of assemblage artist Noah Purifoy and music and film producer Gil Friesen. NPF provides classroom teachers a Learning Guide for pre-and-post school day art experience exemplifying Purifoy’s ideas. The full-day program includes round-trip transportation to the Outdoor Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Sculptue in Joshua Tree, a docent-led tour of the Museum with a discussion of Purifoy’s principles of the creative process by NPF Co-founder Sue Welsh, a nutritious lunch for students and staff, followed by a Windshield Bus Tour” of Joshua Tree National Park conducted by a Park Ranger. In 2018-2019 the California Arts Council (CAC) recognized our program as a contribution to arts curriculum, and increased its award for 2020-2021 to include teaching assistants Kim Abeles and Mark Greenfield to provide students post-visit in-classroom assemblage art making activities. Students and staff return home with a copy of Friesen’s Academy Award winning documentary film “Twenty Feet From Stardom” and follow-up classroom activities. Thank you again CAC for the support and recognition!
Joe Lewis with Noah at the Outdoor Art Museum ©Jim McHugh
The Soul of California: Junk's deeper meaning in Joshua Tree
Joe Lewis is an artist, writer, educator, and the president of the Noah Purifoy Foundation who met Noah after seeing and writing about his retrospective at the California African American Museum in 1997. In this podcast he speaks about Noah's life and his artwork in Los Angeles as an arts and community activist, and in Joshua Tree where Noah spent the last 15 years of his life creating the Outdoor Arts Museum.
Photo by Lance Gerber, DESERT magazine
DESERT magazine: "What would Noah Purifoy do?"
Kristin Scharkey speaks with members of the Noah Purifoy Foundation Board of Directors about the difficulties of finding a balance between preserving Noah's Outdoor Museum while maintaining the integrity of the original artwork. "The work is always changing, and that's what Noah wanted to do... We are staying as true to that as possible." DESERT magazine, June 2017.
The Kirby Express, 1994-96
VoCA Journal dedicates its issue to the work of progresive artist-endowed foundations.
Contributors to this Fall 2016 issue include leaders from the Noah Purifoy, Jay DeFeo, Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell and Dedalus foundations. The journal features two contributions from Richard Cándida Smith, the founding President of the Noah Purifoy Foundation. Read these fascinating insights at the article links below.
Noah sitting on The White House in construction, Joshua Tree, early 1990s
VoCA Journal: Art Is A Confrontation with A "Me" That Needs Improving
Historian Richard Cándida Smith recollects the beginnings of the Noah Purifoy Foundation, and his eventual position as the founding president of the Foundation. Smith recorded several interviews with Noah over the course of four years, and shares Noah's own feelings about the Foundation that was created in his name.
No Contest, 1991
VoCA Journal: Multiple Theoretical Directions: The Noah Purifoy Foundation Today
Richard Cándida Smith served as President of the Noah Purifoy Foundation from its inception in 1998 until 2001., when Joseph Lewis succeeded him. Recently, the two sat down to discuss where the Foundation started, how it has evolved since then, and what's next on the horizon in this second contribution to the VoCA Journal.
Everything and the Kitchen Sink, 1996
Motherboard takes a photo tour of Noah Purifoy's desert museum
Naolmi Melati Bishop and photographer Aaron Purket take a photo tour of Purifoy's Outdoor Museum with a special focus on the "Junk Dada" electronic waste in the desert environment. Bishop describes Purifoy's work in the high desert terrain - one of striking contrasts and inclement weather: summer days soar above one-hundred-degrees, and winter nights plunge to below freezing.