1965 Noah Purifoy Watts Riots Sculpture
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GUEST:
It's called "66 Signs of Neon." The artist is Noah Purifoy. He was an African American who passed away a few years ago in a house fire in the high desert. But in 1965, there were the Watts riots in Los Angeles. It was a terrible, terrible time. And Noah lived and worked in Watts. Well, he was so distressed, he went and he gathered up the debris, and this debris consists of blood, metal, neon, and glass. And it's all fused together. And he made these sculptures, whatever you want to call them. He gave this one to my late husband, who at that time was the assistant director of the California Arts Commission. We got it in 1966. So I've had it now 50 years.
APPRAISER:
Well, you mentioned the artist's name, and it is Noah Purifoy. He was an African-American artist who was actually born in 1917 in Alabama. And he got a bachelor's degree from the Alabama State Teacher's College before going on to get a graduate degree from Atlanta University. But then what's more interesting, I believe, about his education is that he was the first African-American full-time student at the Chouinard Institute, which is now called CalArts, here in California.
GUEST:
Oh, for heaven's sakes, yes.
APPRAISER:
But his artistic career is really begun during those 1965 Watts riots.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
And the first large body of sculpture that Purifoy produced came from this found debris that he gathered, and his quote was, "while it was still smoldering." Purifoy had been on the Watts Towers Arts Council and was really involved in art in Watts. And so this really shook him and affected him deeply. And he took this debris and expressed his frustrations dealing with the bias and the violence. And I think what we have here is an incredibly powerful depiction of the strife and the angst and the violence that came about during the Watts riots. And it's from the burning of buildings that we've got the melted metal that melted together with glass. And I believe his saying that "and blood" is perhaps metaphorical, but there was a lot of violence and quite a few deaths in the riots.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
And if we turn this and look at it in the full round, this really is a sculpture to be viewed from every angle.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
Because at every single angle, you see the different charred places where the fire was more intense. And it's been said that his pieces of sculpture in the group show "66 Signs of Neon," which I don't know that that would necessarily be the title of this work, because that was a group show that Purifoy was in. It was said that you could still smell the burnt wood and metal smell on his sculpture. And I will just point out that on the bottom of the sculpture, this is partly how we know that this isn't just a base. See the uneven cut?
GUEST:
Oh, yes.
APPRAISER:
I mean, to me, this is still a found object.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
I think he found this piece of wood and put this together with this charred remains from the riots.
GUEST:
And this looks like it might be a little charring here.
APPRAISER:
Exactly. So he moved out here to the Mojave Desert, to the Joshua Tree area, in the late '80s, and started what would be another very interesting period in his artistic career. And I don't know if you've been, but it's a ten-acre site where he brought in found objects. And it is a giant outdoor sculpture installation that's a very important part of California's artistic makeup now. To put Purifoy in the context of importance in African-American art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art dedicated a solo show to him last summer in 2015, and it was so popular it got extended.
GUEST:
My goodness.
APPRAISER:
The attendance was massive. Very little of his work has ever appeared on the open market.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
I would advise insuring this for $125,000.
GUEST:
Ah! Ah! Ah! You're kidding me! Really? Really?! Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness.
APPRAISER:
It's that important.
GUEST:
I don't have a stick of... of fine art insurance on this. Not one dollar.
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