Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Sculpture – Noah Purifoy Foundation

In the late 1980’s Noah Purifoy moved his art practice out to the Mojave desert. He lived for the last 25 years of his life creating ten acres full of large-scale sculpture on the desert floor. Constructed entirely from junked materials, this otherworldly environment is one of California’s great art historical wonders. The resulting immersive environment can be seen as a culmination of Purifoy's preceding decades dedicated to art and activism.

Noah Purifoy’s earliest body of sculpture, constructed out of charred debris from the 1965 Watts rebellion, was the basis for 66 Signs of Neon, the landmark 1966 group exhibition on the Watts riots that traveled throughout the country. As a founding director of the Watts Towers Art Center, Purifoy knew the community intimately. His 66 Signs of Neon, in line with the postwar period’s fascination with the street and its objects, constituted a Duchampian approach to the fire-molded alleys of Watts. This strategy profoundly impacted artists such as David Hammons, John Outterbridge and Senga Nengudi. For the 20 years that followed the rebellion, Purifoy dedicated himself to the found object, and to using art as a tool for social change.

1998, Noah Purifoy’s representative and colleague of many years, Sue A. Welsh, suggested to him the importance of preserving his Outdoor Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Sculpture in Joshua Tree. The following year, the Noah Purifoy Foundation (NPF) was formally established as a 501(c)3 non-profit private foundation.

Today, the Museum site includes 10 acres in the high desert town of Joshua Tree. Noah's workshop is still used as storage and staging area for restoration and repairs. Over 100 sculptures were constructed on site, and many remain as he created them, though weathered by the desert elements. "Quonset Hut", which Noah built in the 1990's as a sculpture, is used as an indoor gallery space for some of his small assemblage sculptures and wall hangings.

The site is open everyday from dawn to dusk, and is free of charge to the general public.

The Noah Purifoy Foundation preserves and maintains the site Noah Purifoy developed in Joshua Tree, California. As a permanent cultural center and sculpture park open to the public, the site promotes public recognition and appreciation for the values that Purifoy’s work as an artist and educator has embodied; and to pursue these goals in a manner that protects Purifoy’s contribution as an artist and educator.