Bio + Chronology

NOAH PURIFOY 1917 - 2004

Born in Snow Hill, Alabama August 17, 1917; died in Joshua Tree, California   March 9, 2004.

1989-2004  Outdoor Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Sculpture created in the high desert of Joshua Tree, California, More than 100 works of art created and placed on 10 acres of the desert floor and in a gallery structure,
 

Education

1943  Bachelor of Science, Alabama State Teachers College, Montgomery, Alabama

1948  Master of Social Service Administration, Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia

1956  Bachelor of Fine Arts, Chouinard Art Institute, Los Angeles, California

Solo Exhibitions

2018   Noah Purifoy, Tilton Gallery, New York (In conjunction with East Coast/West Coast:Clark, Hammons, Outterbridge, Saar, Washington)

2015-2016   Noah Purifoy: Junk Dada, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; traveled to The Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

1999   Random Transformations: Assemblages by Noah Purifoy, Allen Priebe Gallery, University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, Oshkosh, Wisconsin

1998   Noah Purifoy: New and Recent Works, Mendenhall Gallery, Pasadena, California

1997-1998   Noah Purifoy: Outside and in the Open (retrospective exhibition), California African American Museum; traveled to African-American Museum, Dallas, Texas; Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries, Atlanta, Georgia; Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California

1996   Purifoy Now and Then, The Corridor Gallery of Art, Los Angeles, California

1995   Desert Tombstones, Rachele Lozzi Gallery, Los Angeles, California, in concert with Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art, Hammer Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, California

1995   Assemblages, Mountain View Memorial Park Gallery, Altadena, California

1995   Legends - Artists' Salute to Black History Month, The Museum of African American Art, Los Angeles, California

1993-1995  As Is In Joshua Tree, Tara's Hall, Los Angeles, California, now installed as a permanent exhibition

1989   Noah Purifoy: A New Place To Be, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, California

1988   Noah Purifoy: Collages, Assemblages, Constructions and Combines, Gallery at the Old Masonic Lodge, Los Angeles, California  

1971   Niggers Ain't Gonna Never Ever Be Nothin’- All They Want to do is Drink and Fuck, Brockman Gallery, Los Angeles, California

Group Exhibitions

2021-2022 Assembly: New Acquisitions by Contemporary Black Artists, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas

2019  Dreamweavers, UTA Art Space, Los Angeles, California

2018  Ground to Sky, Yucca Valley Visual and Performing Arts Center, Yucca Valley, Calfornia

2018-2019 Outliers and American Vanguard, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; traveled to LACMA, Los Angeles, California

2017  Say it Loud: Art, History, Rebellion, Charles Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, Michigan

2017-2020  Soul of A Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, Tate Modern, London, England; traveled to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York; The Broad, Los Angeles, California; de Young Museum, San Francisco, California; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

2016  Tinseltown in the Rain: The Surrealist Diaspora in Los Angeles 1935 to 1969, Richard Telles Fine Art, Los Angeles, California

2016  Watts, The Loft at Liz's, Los Angeles, California

2015-2016   Hard Edged: Geometrical Abstraction and Beyond, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, California

2016-2016   Experience 19: Touch, El Segundo Museum of Art (ESMoA), El Segundo, California

2015-2016   50 Years and I Still Can't Breathe, Watts Towers Arts Center, Los Angeles, California

2015   America is Hard to See, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York

2014-2015   When the Stars Begin to Fall: Imagination and the American South, Studio Museum, Harlem, New York, traveled to the NSU Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts

2012-2013   For The Martian Chronicles, L&M Arts, Venice, California

2011-2012   Civic Virtue: The Impact of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and the Watts Towers Arts Center (WTAC), Los Angeles, California

2011-2012   Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L,A, Painting and Sculpture, 1950-1970, The J, Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center, Los Angeles, California; traveled to Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany

2011-2013   Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California; traveling to MOMA PS1, New York, New York

2011-2012   Places of Validation, Art and Progression, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, California

2004, 2009 and 2010   Artists Influenced by Noah Purifoy, Twentynine Palms Artist Guild West Gallery, Twentynine Palms, California

2009   Harsh Terrain, Roberts and Tilton, Culver City, California

2009   Inside My Head: Intuitive Artists of African Descent, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, California

2007   L.A. Object and David Hammons Body Prints, Roberts & Tilton Gallery, Los Angeles, California

2006   L.A. Object and David Hammons Body Prints, Tilton Gallery, New York, New York

2005   Unpredictable Dialogue, Sam Francis Gallery, Crossroads School, Santa Monica, California

2003   African American Art Legends Exhibitions, FDG Fine Arts Gallery, Los Angeles, California

1999   A Piece at a Time, Watts Towers Arts Center, Los Angeles, California

1998   World Artists for Tibet and World Human Rights, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, California

1997   Elusive Paradise, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California

1997   Works by Kathy Lee, Carol Overr, and Noah Purifoy, Twentynine Palms Art Gallery, January 2-26, Twentynine Palms, California

1996   One Apiece, The Corridor Gallery of Art, Hollywood, California

1995   Homecoming, First Twenty-Five Years at the Watts Towers Art Center, Los Angeles, California

1995   Environments: Extending the Artist's Realm, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, California

1995   African American Representations of Masculinity, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, California

1995   The Legends, The DuSable Museum, Los Angeles, California

1994   Connections II, Getty Center for the History of Art and Humanities, Santa Monica, California

1993   Off the Wall, Porter Randall Gallery, La Jolla, California

1993   I Remember: Thirty Years After the March on Washington; Images of the Civil Rights Movement 1963-1993, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1990   Celebrations, The Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 

1989   19 Sixties: A Cultural Awakening Reevaluated 1965-1975, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, California

1986   Southern California Assemblage: Past and Present, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, The College of Creative Studies Gallery, University of California, Santa Barbara; traveled to The Museum of Santa Cruz County, Santa Cruz, California

1977   African Festival of the Arts and Culture, Lagos, Nigeria,

1975   Black Artists in California, Governor's Office, Sacramento, California

1975   West Coast 74: The Black Image, Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Park, Los Angeles, California 

1974   The Negro in American Art, Fine Arts Galleries, San Diego, California;  UCLA Arts Galleries, Los Angeles, California

1974   Faculty Art Exhibit, Cowell College Gallery, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California

1973   Group Exhibition, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

1972   Los Angeles 1972: A Panorama of Black Artists, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California

1972   Garbage Needs Recycle Exhibition, United States Office of Information, Berlin, Germany

1971   The Black Experience, Occidental College, Los Angeles, California

1971   The Negro in American Art and The Metal Experience, Oakland Art Museum, Oakland, California

1971   Group Exhibition, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa

1971   Group Exhibition, Kalamazoo Institute of Art, Kalamazoo, Michigan

1971   Contemporary Black Imagery: 7 Artists, Brockman Gallery, Los Angeles, California

1971   Local Black Artists, Compton College, Compton, California

1971   Contemporary Black Artists of America, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York

1971   Black American Artists, Chicago Bell Galleries, Chicago, Illinois

1971   Five Black Artists: Benny, Bernie, Betye, Noah and John, Lang Art Gallery, Scripps College, La Jolla, California

1970   Dimensions of Black, La Jolla Museum, traveling exhibition, San Diego, California

1969   12 Black-American Artists, Nordness Galleries, New York, New York

1969   Microcosm 69, Long Beach Museum, traveling exhibition, Long Beach, California

1966 | The Negro in American Art, One Hundred and Fifty Years of Afro-American Art, UCLA Dickson Center, Los Angeles, California 

1966-1971   66 Signs of Neon (group exhibition spearheaded by Purifoy), Simon Rodia Renaissance of the Arts Festival, Jordan Markham High, Watts, California; traveled to: Watts Summer Art Festival; The University of Southern California Christian Science Center, Los Angeles, California; The University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley Art Galleries, Berkeley, California; Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Washington, DC; Hunter Art Gallery, Chattanooga, Tennessee; Huntington Galleries, Knoxville, Tennessee; Orlando Galleries, Encino, California

1966   Group Exhibition, Orlando Galleries, Encino, California

1965   Group Exhibition, Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, California

1960   California Design 6, Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, California

Public Collections

Oran Belgrave Museum, Omaha, Nebraska

California African American Museum, Los Angeles, California

Illinois Bell Telephone Company, Chicago, Illinois

Oakland Museum, Oakland, California

Smithsonian Archives of American Art

University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, Wisconsin

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York

National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Please note that this is a selective list. Scholars may request a complete CV by contacting the Foundation.