Finding Art in the California Desert
Roadtripping uncovers treasures by the Salton Sea
Published in
7 min readFeb 14, 2023
Story and photos by Laurie McAndish King
Desert art is a little off-kilter.
Maybe a lot.
OK, OK — it’s whacky and intriguing and oddly beguiling, and I’ve been obsessing about it ever since I visited the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Museum of Assemblage Sculpture near Joshua Tree, California.
The Noah Purifoy Museum
Constructed entirely from found materials — wood, concrete, tires, an old water-cooler, sticks and branches, school lunch trays, bicycles and toilet bowls — the “museum” stretches across ten acres of the Mojave Desert, and is all the work of one artist.
Born in 1917 in Alabama, Noah Purifoy earned his BFA at Chouinard Art Institute, was a founding director of the Watts Towers Art Center, had thirteen solo exhibitions, and participated in dozens of group shows. His work…
