Q7

[Michelle5]

I am having a hard time choosing between (C) and (E). I know (A) (B) and (D) are wrong since the author would not highly value predicting the political/social future. But when I am left with (C) and (E) I chose (C) since it had to do with breaking from ....oh wait, as I am typing this I realize why (C) is wrong lol! They broke away from representational art not mastered it. I guess (E) by itself just seems like such a lame answer and I wouldn't have chosen it not based on being able to eliminate all of the others. Is it that he highly values their stylistic and aesthetic accomplishments since its either those accomplishments, or their predictions of the future which the author obviously does not praise? Thanks for anyones insight.

[giladedelman]

Good post!

So you're right: the author is clearly not into the whole socio-political interpretation of these artists' significance. I think the line that sums it up best is this one: "But the forward-looking quality attributed to these artists should instead be credited to their exceptional aesthetic innovations rather than to any power to make clever guesses about political or social trends." So (E) is very nicely supported, and yes, it's lame, which is typical of correct answers, since the milder they come, the easier they are to support.

Does that help?

[shirando21]

I found the reference lines but not sure if aesthetic innovation is more of a technique innovation or accomplishment.
I was struggling btw c and e too

[tommywallach]

Hey There Shirando,

You're absolutely right that "aesthetic innovation" is difficult to separate in terms of whether it's more about technique or style. However, the major error that (C) makes has to do with the LAST part of it. These artists are NOT primarily representational. If anything, what they've mastered is non-representational art.

See lines 7-11: "The artistic styles that they brought into being varied widely, but all these styles had in common a very important break with traditions of representational art that stretched back to the Renaissance."

Hope that helps!

-t

[shirando21]

Very helpful, many thanks, Tommy:)

[krisk743]

So how is a/c E in the "second paragraph" when it's being said in lines 30-34?

That's the part I don't get....am I supposed to be looking out for tricky words in the question stem too - "characteristics of the painters discussed in the second paragraph"?

[JustinZ880]

Hi, I know Im super late on this but perhaps it will benefit others. Like you, I made the mistake of searching in paragraph 2 for the answer. However, upon reexamination, I found the question asks "...of the painters discussed in the second paragraph" meaning that paragraph 2 is simply a reference point to where we can find the painters being discussed. This does not necessarily imply that the characteristics would ALSO be found in this same paragraph. Indeed, we see that the description is found primarily in paragraph 3.

So in short... yes... look out for the tricky wording.