ART WIKI32,963 on view
MapCollectionArtistsMuseumsExhibitionsJournal
Sign in

ART WIKI

Where the masterpiece hangs, and when they let you in.

Collections: Art Institute of Chicago, Getty Villa, Harvard Art Museums, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, J. Paul Getty Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Musée du Louvre, National Gallery of Art, National Museum of Asian Art, National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian), Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Rijksmuseum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, SMK — National Gallery of Denmark, State Hermitage Museum, State Russian Museum, The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, Tretyakov Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, State Catalogue of the Museum Fund of Russia (274 museums), Europeana (19 museums), Wikidata (6 museums), Paris Musées (12 museums), and Joconde, the French Ministry of Culture's museum database (495 museums). Images belong to their rights holders.

Sections

  • Map
  • Search
  • Collection
  • Masterpieces
  • On view now
  • Artists

More

  • Museums & galleries
  • Exhibitions
  • Journal
  • Where the data comes from
  • Privacy & cookies
HomeMapBrowse
  1. Collection/
  2. Art Institute of Chicago/
  3. The Silence
The Silence, Alfredo Jaar, 1987
Alfredo Jaar, portraitAlfredo JaarChilean, 1956

The Silence

1987 · Photograph

May one see it?

Not receiving at present

Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.

Checked
3 days ago
In this state since
Aug 19, 2026
Source
The museum
On the mapMuseum page

About the work

After moving to New York in 1982, Alfredo Jaar turned from architecture to photographic installation work. His projects address the harsh conditions of life in eco-nomically underdeveloped regions “to bring news of the world to the art world.” In his 1987 installation 1+1+1, three photographic light boxes displayed upside-down images of Salvadoran street children, including this one. He cropped photojournalist Steve Cagan’s original photograph at the children’s waists, removing their faces and leaving only the distended bellies and bare feet that signal their impoverished condition. On the floor below each light box, gold frames suggested three different relationships between art and reality: detachment (an empty frame), self-reflection (frames within frames), and a limited but corrected reflection (a framed mirror).

Art Institute of Chicago · CC BY 4.0

Particulars

1987 · aged 31
1956now
Accession number
1992.583

In the catalog

PhotographsGelatin silver printContemporary art20th centuryChile

Sources

  • Art Institute of Chicago
  • Image: Art Institute of Chicago — © the artist or rights holder

More by Alfredo Jaar

All works
Opus 1981/Andante Desesperato, Alfredo Jaar, 1981

Opus 1981/Andante Desesperato

1981 · Not on view · The Museum of Modern Art

He Ram, Alfredo Jaar, 1991

He Ram

1991 · Not on view · The Museum of Modern Art

Rwanda, Rwanda, Alfredo Jaar, 1994

Rwanda, Rwanda

1994 · Not on view · The Museum of Modern Art

Lament of the Images, Alfredo Jaar, 2002

Lament of the Images

2002 · Not on view · The Museum of Modern Art

Business Week Cover, December 24, 1984, Alfredo Jaar, 1985

Business Week Cover, December 24, 1984

1985 · Not on view · Art Institute of Chicago

1 + 1 + 1, Alfredo Jaar, 1987

1 + 1 + 1

1987 · Not on view · Art Institute of Chicago

Coyote!, Alfredo Jaar, 1988

Coyote!

1988 · Not on view · Whitney Museum of American Art

Modernism is Dead, Long Live Modernism, Alfredo Jaar, 1988

Modernism is Dead, Long Live Modernism

1988 · Not on view · Whitney Museum of American Art

Neighbors at Art Institute of Chicago

Museum page
The Bedroom, Vincent van Gogh, 1889

Vincent van Gogh

The Bedroom, 1889

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884, Georges Seurat, 1884–86, border added 1888–89

Georges Seurat

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884–86, border added 1888–89

Paris Street; Rainy Day, Gustave Caillebotte, 1877

Gustave Caillebotte

Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877

Two Sisters (On the Terrace), Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1881

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Two Sisters (On the Terrace), 1881

The Basket of Apples, Paul Cézanne, c. 1893

Paul Cézanne

The Basket of Apples, c. 1893

Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer), Claude Monet, 1890–91

Claude Monet

Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer), 1890–91

American Gothic, Grant Wood, 1930

Grant Wood

American Gothic, 1930

Nighthawks, Edward Hopper, 1942

Edward Hopper

Nighthawks, 1942