Manifesto

An audiovisual landscape of the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Museum, located in the High Desert of California. In 1986, Noah Purifoy (1917-2004) retired from his long-term position on the California Arts Council and moved to a remote desert site north of Joshua Tree National Park. There, over the last eighteen years of his life, he created an ambitious series of over one hundred assemblage sculptures, sprawling over the harsh, arid land.

In 1964, a colossal pre-Hispanic monolith was taken from the village of San Miguel Coatlichán to the National Museum of Anthropology and History in Mexico City. This event led to an exploration of the conflicts surrounding heritage and history through the artifacts of the past, and gave rise to an international debate on cultural property and the legitimate custodians of the past.

Using archival images, this film captures the history of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism, and more generally, the arrival of modern art in the United States in the context of the Cold War. This compilation film about the ideological influence of the movement constitutes a critical view of the intersection of art and poiltics during the McCarthy era.