Everybody knows Sonic Youth’s cover for ‘Dirty’, this worn-out knit little red head whose species I have never been able to really determine.
His author, Mike Kelley was found dead in the bathtub of his Los Angeles home on Tuesday, dead of a possible suicide.
A longtime friend of Kim Gordon, Kelley was not only a visual artist but a musician, who even collaborated with Sonic Youth, and also the founding member of the Detroit punk band ‘Destroy All Monsters’ in the mid-70s (which included members of the Stooges and MC5).
Kelley was a very influencial artist whose career was fueled by punk-rock and pop-culture kitsch, like his giant sculpture of Kentucky Fried Chicken Colonel Sander with a miniature Sigmund Freud, or his numerous installations with stuffed animals.
According to Reuters, there were no signs of trauma or foul play, and Paul Schimmel, the chief curator for the LACMA, was stunned and in shock by the artist’s death as he said that he had just spent a wonderful evening with Kelley before the holidays.
According to Brooklyn Vegan, Helene Winer of New York’s Metro Pictures gallery, declared she was also totally shocked ‘that someone would decide to do this, someone who has success and renown and options’, but added the artist had been depressed after recently breaking up with his girlfriend. An autopsy was scheduled on Thursday.