Joe Goode, a mercurial artist whose more than six-decade career began in the fledgling contemporary art scene of 1960s Southern California, died at his Los Angeles home at the age of 87 on Saturday, March 22, one day before his 88th birthday. The news of his passing was confirmed by Michael Kohn Gallery, which has represented the artist in LA since 2011. 

It’s both, Joe Goode’s art answered as the 1960s began — something surely material but purely visual. And something else besides, something curious and engaging that you haven’t ever seen before. In his strongest work, the Los Angeles-based artist — who died of natural causes in his sleep on March 22, a day before his 88th birthday — held the image and the object in eccentric equipoise. The result is an uncanny sense of vivid presence.

Joe Goode, a painter who counted as a core figure of the Los Angeles art scene of the 1960s, died on March 22 at his home in Los Angeles at 87. He would have turned 88 the following day. Michael Kohn Gallery and Zander Galerie, Goode’s representatives in LA and Cologne, respectively, announced his death this week but did not specify a cause.