NOAH PURIFOY
Born 1917, Snow Hill, AL
Died 2004, Joshua Tree, CA
Education
1956 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Chouinard Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA
1948 Master of Social Service Administration, Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA
1943 Bachelor of Science, Alabama State Teachers College, Montgomery, AL
Solo Exhibitions
2023
Noah Purifoy, Tilton Gallery, New York, NY
2018
Noah Purifoy, Tilton Gallery, New York, NY
2015-2016
Noah Purifoy: Junk Dada, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; traveled to the Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
1999
Random Transformations: Assemblages by Noah Purifoy, Allen Priebe Gallery, University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI
1998
Assemblages by Noah Purifoy, Mendenhall Gallery, Pasadena, CA
1997
Noah Purifoy: Outside and in the Open, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA; traveled to African American Museum, Dallas, TX; Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries, Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA; Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA
1996
Purifoy Now and Then, The Corridor Gallery of Art, Los Angeles, CA
1995
Desert Tombstones, Rachele Lozzi Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Assemblages, Mountainview Memorial Gallery, Altadena, CA
Legends - Artists' Salute to Black History Month, Crenshaw Plaza, Los Angeles, CA
1993
As Is In Joshua Tree, Tara's Hall, Los Angeles, CA [now a permanent exhibition]
1989
A New Place To Be, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
1988
Noah Purifoy: Collages, Assemblages, Constructions and Combines, Gallery at the Old Masonic Lodge, Los Angeles, CA
1971
Niggers Ain't Gonna Never Ever Be Nothin’- All They Want to do is Drink and Fuck, Brockman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
Where I Learned to Look: Art from the Yard, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA
2023
Together in Time: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2022
Joan Didion: What She Means, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2021
Art of California: Greater than the Sum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Assembly: New Acquisitions by Contemporary Black Artists, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX
Empty Legs, Tilton Gallery, New York, NY
2019
Dust My Broom: Southern Vernacular from the Permanent Collection, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
LA Blacksmith, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Open House: Elliot Hundley, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Dreamweavers, UTA Artist Space, Los Angeles, CA
Unseen Works: David Hammons and Friends, Tilton Gallery, New York, NY
2018
East Coast/West Coast, Part II: Clark, Hammons, Purifoy, Saar, Washington, Tilton Gallery, New York, NY
Ground to Sky, Yucca Valley Performing Arts Center, Yucca Valley, CA
Outliers and American Vanguard Art, The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., January 28 - May 13, 2018; traveled to the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, June 22 – September 30, 2018; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, November 18, 2018 – March 17, 2019
2017
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, Tate Modern, London, UK, July 12 - October 22, 2017, traveled to Crystal Bridges, Bentonville, AR, February 2 - April 23, 2018; the Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY, September 7, 2018 - February 3, 2019; The Broad, Los Angeles, CA March 23 - September 1, 2019; de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA, November 9, 2019 - March 15, 2020; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, April 26 – July 19, 2020
2016
Experience 19: Touch, El Segundo Museum of Art (ESMoA), El Segundo, CA
Tinseltown in the Rain: The Surrealist Diaspora in Los Angeles 1935 to 1969, Richard Telles Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
Watts, The Loft at Liz's, Los Angeles, CA
2015-2016
Hard Edged: Geometrical Abstraction and Beyond, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
50 Years and I Still Can't Breathe, Watts Towers Arts Center, Los Angeles, CA
2015
America is Hard to See, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
2014-2015
When the Stars Begin to Fall: Imagination and the American South, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; traveled to the NSU Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL; and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
2012
For The Martian Chronicles, L&M Arts, Venice, CA
2011
Civic Virtue: The Impact of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and the Watts Towers Arts Center, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950-1970, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA; traveled to Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany
Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; traveled to MoMA PS1, New York, NY
Places of Validation, Art and Progression, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
L.A. Object & David Hammons Body Prints, Tilton Gallery, Art 42, Basel, Switzerland
2010
Artists Influenced by Noah Purifoy, Twentynine Palms Artist Guild West Gallery, Twentynine Palms, CA
2009
Harsh Terrain, Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, CA
Inside My Head: Intuitive Artists of African Descent, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Artists Influenced by Noah Purifoy, Twentynine Palms Artist Guild West Gallery, Twentynine Palms, CA
2006
L.A. Object and David Hammons Body Prints, Tilton Gallery, New York, NY; traveled to Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, CA
2005
African American Artists in Los Angeles, A Survey Exhibition: Pathways 1966-89, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Unpredictable Dialogue, Sam Francis Gallery, Crossroads School, Santa Monica, CA
2004
Artists Influenced by Noah Purifoy, Twentynine Palms Artist Guild West Gallery, Twentynine Palms, CA
2003
African American Art Legends Exhibitions, FDG Fine Arts Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1999
A Piece at a Time, Watts Towers Arts Center, Los Angeles, CA
1998
World Artists for Tibet and World Human Rights, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
1997
Elusive Paradise, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Works by Kathy Lee, Carol Overr, and Noah Purifoy, Twentynine Palms Art Gallery, Twentynine Palms, CA
1996
Purifoy Now and Then, The Corridor Gallery of Art, East Hollywood, CA
One Apiece, The Corridor Gallery of Art, Hollywood, CA
1995
Environments: Extending the Artist's Realm, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
African American Representations of Masculinity, Museum of African American Art, Los Angeles, CA
Homecoming - First 25 Years at the Watts Towers Art Center, Watts Tower Arts Center, Los Angeles, CA
The Legends, The DuSable Museum of African American History, Chicago, IL
1994
Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; traveled to the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Connections II, Getty Center for the History of Art and Humanities, Santa Monica, CA [Commission]
1993
Off the Wall, Porter Randall Gallery, La Jolla, CA
I Remember: Thirty Years After the March on Washington; Images of the
Civil Rights Movement 1963-1993, Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1990
Celebrations, The Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California. Los Angeles, CA
1989
19 Sixties: A Cultural Awakening Reevaluated 1965-1975, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
1986
Southern California Assemblage: Past and Present, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, The College of Creative Studies Gallery, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA; traveled to The Museum of Santa Cruz County, Santa Cruz, CA
1977
African Festival of the Arts and Culture, Lagos, Nigeria
1975
Black Artists in California, State Capitol Building, Sacramento, CA [Presented byGovernor Edmund G. Brown Jr.]
West Coast 74: The Black Image, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdale Park, Los Angeles, CA
1974
The Negro in American Art, Fine Arts Galleries, San Diego, CA
Faculty Art Exhibit, Cowell College Gallery, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA
1973
The University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
1972
Garbage is Beautiful (Müll macht Möglich), Berlin Industries Fair, Berlin, Germany (September 15-24, 1972) [sponsored by the United States Office of Information]; traveled to Poland
Los Angeles 1972: A Panorama of Black Artists, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
1971
University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
Kalamazoo Institute of Art, Kalamazoo, MI
Black Art: The Black Experience, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA
Contemporary Black Artists In America, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Five Black Artists: Benny, Bernie, Betye, Noah and John, Lang Art Gallery, Scripps College, Claremont, CA
Local Black Artists, Compton College, Compton, CA
Black American Artists ’71, Illinois Art Council and Illinois Bell Lobby Gallery, Chicago, IL
Contemporary Black Imagery: 7 Artists, Brockman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
The Negro in American Art and The Metal Experience, Oakland Art Museum, Oakland, CA
1970
Watts Summer Festival Art Exhibition, Will Rogers Park Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA
Fine Art in the Home by Contemporary Black Artists, San Fernando Furniture,Los Angeles, CA [Sponsored by Brockman Gallery]
Dimensions of Black, La Jolla Museum, La Jolla, CA; traveled to the University of San Diego, San Diego, CA
1969
12 Afro-American Artists, Nordness Galleries, New York, NY
Noah Purifoy and David Hammons, Brockman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Microcosm 69, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
1967
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
1966 - 1971
66 Signs of Neon, Simon Rodia Renaissance of the Arts Festival, Jordan Markham High, Watts, CA; traveled to Watts Summer Art Festival, Watts, CA; The University of Southern California Christian Science Center, Los Angeles, CA; The University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley Art Galleries, Berkeley, CA; Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Washington DC; Hunter Art Gallery, Chattanooga, TN; Huntington Galleries, Knoxville, TN; Orlando Galleries, Encino, CA
1966
The Negro in American Art. One Hundred and Fifty Years of Afro-American Art, UCLA, Dickson Center, Los Angeles, CA
Orlando Galleries, Encino, CA
1965
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA
1960
California Design 6, Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA
Awards and Achievements
1997-1998 Visual Artist Award, The Flintridge Foundation, Pasadena, CA
1997 Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
1996 Lannan Foundation, Getty Trust Fund for Visual Arts, California Community Foundation
for touring Retrospective, Florsheim Art Fund
1995 Gottlieb Foundation
1993 Pollock Krasner Foundation
1976-1987 Member, California Arts Council, appointed by Governor Jerry Brown
1966 Co-Founder, Watts Summer Festivals. Los Angeles, CA
Co-Founder, Company Theatre (later Provisional Theatre), Los Angeles, CA
1964 Founder, Watts Towers Art Center, Los Angeles, CA
Public Collections
Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX
California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Dallas Museum of Art, TX
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
The Horseman Foundation, St. Louis, MO
Illinois Bell Telephone Company, Chicago, IL
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA
Oran Belgrave Museum, Omaha, NE
Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Smithsonian Archives of American Art
University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, WI
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY