Where wall text came from

About three galleries into MoMA's Jeff Wall show I realized why the installation seemed so polite, so quiet: Curator Peter Galassi used no wall-text beyond a small plate that gave the work's title, year, and owner. Perfect.

And kind of ironic, given that it was Alfred Barr who brought wall text to America. In Riches, Rivals, and Radicals: 100 Years of Museums in America, Marjorie Schwarzer says that before Barr, American museum walls were blank. A work's title, and the artist's name were typically announced on a small label attached to the bottom of a painting's frame. Schwarzer, whose book was published by the American Association of Museums, says Barr moved that information onto the wall, and that Barr added the artist's country of origin, information on that country, a short bio of the artist, and an explanation of how the work related to other art in the gallery. Phew.

Naturally, European museums used wall text before Americans did. In an excellent essay devoted to wall text in the collection What Makes a Great Exhibition? Ingrid Schaffner writes that in 1857 the British House of Commons passed a "rule" that in national museums objects would be accompanied by 'a brief Description thereof, with the view of conveying useful Information to the Public, and of sparing them the expense of a Catalogue.' (Schaffner quotes from a 1957 pamphlet by F.J. North, "Museum Labels: Handbook for Museum Curators." Bet that was a page-turner.) By 1890, says Schaffner, labels were printed for general distribution. They regularly ran to 300 words and "threatened to turn exhibition displays into textbooks."

Gimme Galassi's approach any day.

Related: A Flickr user finds some unintentionally hilarious wall text. Blogrollee Marshall Astor also gives us the large version of the Thiebaud text above.

Related thing that amuses me: Wall text under a Lawrence Weiner.