Kit Fitzgerald, Pioneering Video Artist, Dies at 73
Kit Fitzgerald, a pioneering video artist who helped shape the medium in its early decades, has died at the age of 73. ARTnews reported her death on 14 August 2026.
Born in 1953, Fitzgerald built a career across video art, documentary filmmaking, music videos, dance films, live performance and album covers. Her official website describes her as a video artist, director and educator. She had been a member of the Directors Guild of America since 1980, according to her biography at Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), a New York-based organisation dedicated to the preservation and distribution of video art.
EAI mourned Fitzgerald's passing, describing her as a longtime member of its community, a beloved artist and an educator, in a post on 8 August 2026.
Fitzgerald was a key figure in the development of video art — the use of video and broadcast technology as a fine-art medium, distinct from television production. From 1977 to 1982, she was artist-in-residence at the Television Laboratory at WNET/Thirteen, the New York public broadcaster. The residency placed her inside a television station at a time when artists were just beginning to access professional video equipment, which until then had largely belonged to networks and studios.
Her work drew on the Fairlight Computer Video Instrument, or CVI, a device that allowed her to generate and manipulate imagery in real time, creating vivid colour compositions on screen. The tool was part of a generation of analogue and early digital equipment that gave artists control over moving images without a traditional film camera.
Fitzgerald collaborated with the composer Peter Gordon and the jazz drummer and percussionist Max Roach on video projects presented at the Next Wave festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, known as BAM. The festival, a annual series in New York, has long been a platform for cross-disciplinary work between musicians, choreographers and media artists.
She also directed award-winning documentaries on art and culture, as well as music videos, dance videos and video installations, according to the New York performance venue Roulette, which listed her among its featured artists.
Fitzgerald's death was confirmed by ARTnews ARTnews. Further details, including the date and cause of death, have not been made public.
Her work lives on through EAI's catalogue, which continues to distribute video art to museums, galleries and educational institutions worldwide.
