Ben Davis confirms the death of a truly amazing artist, Mike Kelley, in ArtInfo today:

Artist Mike Kelley has passed away at his home in Los Angeles, having apparently taken his own life. The tragic news was confirmed to BLOUIN ARTINFO by Helene Winer, of New York’s Metro Pictures gallery, a long-time associate of the artist.

Mike Kelley was the true leading voice of Abject Art, and his visually cacophonous paintings and installations captured the overwhelming nature of Postmodernism psychosis. However, perhaps nothing describes his work better than Jerry Saltz’s famous description of Kelley as using “clusterfuck esthetics”.

Sadly, if created a shortlist of artists I would expect to commit suicide, Mike Kelley would have been on that list. And I do not mean that with any disrespect. His work was always a constant barrage of mania, unfiltered sexual innuendo, and always a sense of “living on the edge”, for lack of a better way of putting it. His personality and id was sprayed all over those paintings, and you couldn’t help but see an artist with a burdened soul.

I spent a very long time staring at Kelley’s work at Museum Brandhorst in Munich, gladly reading every perverted word, and staring at his carelessly messy lines. Being able to see his complete devotion his creative output is something I am not likely to forget.

RIP Mike Kelley.