LACMA “Urban Light” Artist Chris Burden Dies

Los Angeles artist Chris Burden known for large and imaginative installations at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, has died, the museum said Sunday.

Burden was perhaps best known for a set of 202 streetlights arrayed in front of LACMA's entrance.

"We are deeply saddened to note the passing of Chris Burden, whose impact on art and on LA has been profound," a post on LACMA's Instagram feed said.

He died of melanoma after being diagnosed 18 months ago, a friend of the Burden's told the Los Angeles Times. He was 69, the Times reported.

LACMA and the art gallery that represented Burden, Gagosian, did not return a request for comment.

Burden lived and worked in Topanga, California, according to a biography on Gagosian's website.

His 2008 "Urban Light" installation outside the entrance of LACMA became one of its best-known pieces of art. The museum featured it in a 2010 publicity campaign, asking "Have you seen the lights at LACMA?"

"Metropolis II," Burden's Erector Set-style installation that runs toy cars and trains through a small-scale city, became a sensation at LACMA in its own right. In fact, Burden did create an entire 65-foot high skyscraper from an Erector Set at Rockefeller Center in New York City, according to his Gagosian biography.

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