Reading a wall label
展籤怎麼讀
Many museums use labels for a work's basic facts, but both content and format can change from one museum to another.
01About
When reading a Chinese label in Taipei, start with the title, artist, date, medium, and dimensions. Many labels also carry a credit line explaining how a work entered the collection, while some add an accession number or a longer text. The National Palace Museum has described how its explanatory cards changed in size, placement, wording, and translation across periods and exhibition types, so no single format should be expected everywhere.
02In the gallery
Look at the work first, then read the label and notice what it supplies beyond sight.
Wall label terms in Chinese
- 展籤
- Wall label
- 媒材
- Medium
- 館藏登錄號
- Accession number
03Notes
A label can add facts that are not immediately visible in the work.
Before reading the label, what do you think the material and scale might be?