03/12/2025
In honor of Women’s History Month, we are celebrating the life and art of Margot R. Lovejoy (American,1930-2019).
Margot Lovejoy was a groundbreaking multidisciplinary artist and Professor Emerita of Visual Arts at State University of New York, Purchase. Originally a printmaker and photographer, her use of new technologies for installations, artists’ books and websites in the 1990s opened a discourse on how new media can directly influence social engagement. Author of Digital Currents: Art in the Electronic Age (Routledge, 2004) and Postmodern Currents: Art and Artists in the Age of Electronic Media (Prentice Hall, 1997), her project TURNS www.myturningpoint.com was featured in the 2002 Whitney Biennial and is part of the Rhizome database. Lovejoy was a recipient of a 1988 Guggenheim Fellowship, a 1994 Arts International Grant in India, NYFA’s Gregory Millard Fellowship, several NYSCA grants, and the 2007 CAA Award for Distinguished Teaching of Art. She exhibited internationally at Institute for Contemporary Art Inaugural, Taiwan (2001) and featured in major exhibitions in Germany (ZKM), Reina Sofia Museum, Castello Museum and MediaLab Prado, Spain, she had many solo exhibitions in and around New York including those at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center; Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art; the Alternative Museum, and Queens Museum. Lovejoy created many artists’ books such as Labyrinth, Public Linen, and The Book of Plagues, and was a speaker at conferences on art and technology internationally.
Through the generosity of the Lovejoy Family, Godwin-Ternbach Museum now holds a significant number of works by the artist including photographs, prints, artists’ books, and lightboxes. These early works form the foundation of this important collection. Lovejoy’s archives have been shared with Special Collections & Archives, Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library, Queens College.
*Image Credit: 1. Self Portrait, circa 1950s Oil on canvas, Collection Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Courtesy Lovejoy Family, 2024.5.3
2. Singing in the Foliage, circa 1970s Screenprint, Collection Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Courtesy Lovejoy Family, 2024.5.4