Arts
fromHyperallergic
3 weeks agoWhy Wall Labels Matter
Museum labels shape visitor experience; contemporary art addresses polychromy and racial histories, queerness in waterways, and sculptural perception through shifting forms.
In 2024, I made a vow to never base my art criticism on wall labels. My decision came after reading reactions to that year's Whitney Biennial. "If every label in 'Even Better Than the Real Thing,' the 81st installment of the Whitney Biennial, were peeled off the walls and tossed into the Hudson, what would happen?" asked Jackson Arn in the New Yorker. (He went on to suggest that the overall show would have been much better.)