Contemporary art is a very difficult subject to understand.  Most people who
work at museums which feature it have degrees in art history.  They can see
the influences and the practices which the artists were rebeling against.

None of this is true of most of the audience.  Study after study has revealed
that most people prefer art that is "beautiful" and features recognizable
images (landscapes, portaits, etc).

Thus, it is very self damaging to a contemporary art museum to label pieces
with only the artists name and the medium.  Who is the exhibit for?  Curators
from other museums?  Art history PhD students?  What a small audience!

The San Jose Museum of Art recently featured a wonderful exhibit which
divided the works into their respective schools, and started each section
with a large explanatory panel. "Cubism.  Cubism is..."   It was warmly
received by people who were not familiar with contemporary art and had
previously avoided the musum for fear of feeling stupid for not
understanding.  The large panels were far enough away from the art that those
who already knew the information could ignore them and just look at the art.

This is much closer to perfect art labels than the traditional labels.