LaToya Ruby Frazier | Aperture Pat Brunty, the caretaker, standing behind “No Contest 1994.” Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum, Joshua Tree, California. 2016
“I took a pilgrimage out in the Mojave Desert with sculptor /
(...) installation artist Abigail DeVille to pay homage and respects to our ancestor and predecessor, artist Noah Purifoy. Born in Alabama in 1917, Noah Purifoy, after serving in World War II, spent most of his adult life in Los Angeles as an artist, activist, and educator. In 1989, he relocated near Blair Lane in Joshua Tree, High Desert. For the last 15 years of his life, Purifoy created nearly 120 sculptures, before he passed away at 86 on March 5, 2004.
The caretaker of Noah Purifoy’s Desert Art Museum, Pat Brunty, a resident of Yucca Valley and also an Alabama native, worked closely with Noah during the final years of his life. She and her late husband Roger Brunty, under supervision of Noah, built his theater, Andrea’s Little Theater, in 2000. Pat is a passionate and dedicated caretaker of Noah’s work and is serious about maintaining the sculptures as he last saw them, from picking up trash to removing vandalism and greeting visitors. She believes visitors should encounter Noah’s works with an open mind of interpretation.”
- LaToya Ruby Frazier © LaToya Ruby Frazier
