03/08/2026
“Your Silence I Suffer” (oil on canvas, 183 × 122 cm, 1989) is a painting by Lebanese American artist Chawky Frenn. The painting was acquired by the Dalloul Art Foundation and is now part of its permanent collection.
A kneeling figure is surrounded by broken dolls, symbols of childhood, innocence, and the carefree world that war destroys. Once associated with play and protection, the dolls are shattered, dismembered, and hollow, bearing witness to the devastating toll of violence on the most vulnerable.
The painting's title poses an unsettling question: Whose silence is being condemned, and who is made to suffer? Is it the silence of innocence, powerless in the face of brutality? Or is it our collective silence, our indifference, inaction, or refusal to bear witness that perpetuates the suffering of the figure, those who bear witness, the children the dolls represent, and ultimately, our shared humanity?
The crowded mass of fractured doll heads transforms the canvas into a silent chorus of absent voices. In “Your Silence I Suffer”, silence is not peace; it is the echo of lives interrupted, innocence broken, and a humanity diminished whenever violence against children is met with indifference. The broken dolls become symbols not only of children lost to war, but also of a fractured humanity whose silence allows suffering to endure.
