Museum Labels: Questions, Not Answers

Anna Chiara Cimoli argues that museum labels should embrace subjectivity and multiple voices rather than pretend objectivity. She recounts visiting a show of an early 20th-century sculptor whose descendant revealed a work was made from a washbasin due to poverty, sparking questions about resourcefulness and sacrifice. Cimoli critiques traditional labels as insufficient, noting that museums now serve diverse, multilingual, and multicultural audiences. She advocates for labels that are provisional, dialogic, and interpretive, citing examples like the Santa Cruz Museum, V&A Museum of Childhood, Walker Art Gallery, Whipple Museum, HangarBicocca, MoMA, Imperial War Museum, Worcester Art Museum, and the Field Museum. The Rijksmuseum's Adjustment of Colonial Terminology project removed racist terms. Cimoli praises the Tate Modern's opening labels in 2000 as exemplary. She laments poor labels at Milan's Museo di Storia Naturale and a Boccioni portrait that fails to explain the sitter's identity. She announces a course titled "Senza titolo" in Milan from May 4-8, aimed at improving label writing.