L.A Contemporary Artist Mike Kelley Found Dead

Influential contemporary artist Mike Kelley was found dead last week at his home in a Los Angeles suburb and authorities said on Wednesday they were investigating his death as a possible suicide.

Kelley, 57, was found dead in the bathtub of his home in South Pasadena by a friend on Tuesday night, Los Angeles County Coroner's spokesman Ed Winter said.

Winter said the artist had last been seen alive on Sunday. No suicide note was found in the home and there were no signs of trauma or foul play, he said. An autopsy was scheduled for Thursday.

"It's a terrible loss for his family and friends and for the artists of this community, which he's done so much to change and enrich," Paul Schimmel, chief curator for the Los Angeles County Museum of Contemporary Art, told Reuters.

"More than any other artist of his generation, he changed the perception of this city and helped make it the great international art city it is today," he said.

Schimmel, who had known Kelley since 1981, said he was stunned by the artist's death and the possibility that he may have taken his own life.

(Reuters)