Silence=Death

Item

Title: Silence=Death
Description: In 1987, Avram Finkelstein, Brian Howard, Oliver Johnston, Charles Kreloff, Chris Lione, and Jorge Socarrás founded the SILENCE=DEATH Project to support one another in the midst of the AIDS crisis. Inspired by the posters of the Art Workers Coalition and the Guerrilla Girls (both of whose work is on view nearby), they mobilized to spread the word about the epidemic and created the now-iconic Silence=Death poster featuring the pink triangle as a reference to Nazi persecution of LGBTQ people in the 1930s and 1940s. It became the central visual symbol of AIDS activism after it was adopted by the direct action advocacy group AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP).

HIV and AIDS remain a global health issue, with nearly 40 million people living with HIV at the end of 2017. Communities of color continue to face disproportionate effects of the disease as well as barriers to treatment. Today, ACT UP remains dedicated to their original 1987 slogan: ACT UP! FIGHT BACK! FIGHT AIDS!
Creator: Silence = Death Project; Silence=Death Project
Date Created: 1987
Subject: AIDS (Disease) and art; Public health; political art
Format: offset lithographs; political posters
observed dimension: 33 9/16 × 21 15/16 in. (85.2 × 55.7 cm)
Identifier: 2023.BC03.02
Coverage: New York; United States
Publisher: Brooklyn Museum
Provenance: Gift of Robert Thill in honor of Robin Renée Thill Beck
Rights: © 1987 The Silence = Death Project. Used by permission by ACT-UP, The AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power
Relation: Ignorance = Fear / Silence = Death; Kissing Doesn't Kill. Greed and Indifference Do.; Untitled (for ACT UP); Enjoy ATZ; What's Wrong with this Picture?; Photograph of Denise Oliver, Young Lords Party; ACT UP 36th Anniversary