Exploring Noah Purifoy's Outdoor Sculpture Museum in Joshua Tree

Jan 22

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Noah Purifoy Ode to Frank Gehry Joshua Tree

My first visit to Noah Purifoy’s Outdoor Sculpture Museum in Joshua Tee was with my lovely friend, Erin Christovale, associate curator at The Hammer Museum. There’s no one I’d rather experience art with than a brilliant curator as it gives me the opportunity to sit back and be a student, absorbing the years of knowledge one has acquired to be an expert in their field. I love hearing about an artist’s life, transcendent shows, watershed moments, and of course, drama. To learn beyond an art piece is critical to my understanding of the work.

I had first heard about Purifoy’s outdoor museum through High Desert Test Sites, a Joshua Tree-based nonprofit arts organization co-founded and directed by Andrea Zittel. But it wasn’t until Noah Purifoy: Junk Dada, the 2015 retrospective mounted by LACMA that I began to understand the significance of the work. Furthermore, in 2019 while filming through the Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963-1983 exhibition at The Broad, I was thrilled to see Purifoy on the museum walls alongside artists that he lent inspiration. I was there working on a project that I conceptualized, wrote, and produced for Native Instruments, which highlighted the visionary musician Georgia Anne Muldrow. While interviewing Georgia, she spoke of her deep appreciation of John Outterbridge and Noah Purifoy, which made the already gratifying project that more sweet. A big thank you to Jheanelle Brown, formerly of The Broad, for helping make this project a reality.

About Noah Purifoy

Noah Purifoy was born in Snow Hill, Alabama but lived and worked most of his life in Los Angeles and Joshua Tree, California. He passed in 2004 while residing in the Mojave Desert. He was the first Black full-time student to enroll in the BFA program at Chouinard, now CalArts, where he earned his degree in 1956. He was a founding director of the Watts Towers Art Center.

Visiting Noah Purifoy Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Art

Noah Purifoy spent the last 15 years of his life devoted to creating his magnum opus, a series of large-scale sculptures that span across 10 acres of the Mojave desert, located ten miles from Joshua Tree National Park. Just minutes from Hwy 62, this unique landscape contains over one hundred works of art created by Purifoy between 1989–2004. It’s an exceptional display in the desert that is not to be missed while traveling through Southern California.

The Noah Purifoy Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Art is open to the public every day of the year from sun up until sundown and is free of charge. Please sign in at the welcome kiosk near the mailboxes when you visit, and take one of our brochures for a self-guided tour. [source info]

Sunrise, early morning, and near sundown are the best times to visit during the warmer months considering the scorching heat. Make sure to wear sunscreen and to remain hydrated.