October 1992 LSAT Section 2 Question 18

There is no mystery as to why figurative painting revived in the late 1970s. People want to look at recognizable imag...

johndan1234 on February 25, 2018

Confused...Please Help

I was sure that the first statement in the sentence was the conclusion and the rest of the passage (especially the second sentence, were premises.) The correct answer choice E came out of nowhere. Please break it down for me.

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Audrey-Swope on August 13, 2019

I also was confused to this problem. Please explain where E came from.

Ravi on August 13, 2019

@johndan1234 and @Audrey-Swope,

Happy to help. The stimulus starts off by telling us that there's no
mystery for the reason as to why figurative painting revived in late
1970s. Immediately after this, the stimulus tells us that people want
to look at recognizable images. This answer to the previous sentence's
implicit question is the conclusion of the argument: the public's
desire to look at realistic images explains why figurative painting
was revived in the late 1970s.

The rest of the stimulus is used to support this conclusion. Abstract
painting doesn't provide people with empathy like realistic painting
does, and perhaps members of the art-viewing public even resented
abstract art due to the fact that it rejected the real world.

We want the answer choice that tells us what the main point is.

(E) says, "The artistic preferences of the art-viewing public
stimulated the revival."

(E) does an excellent job of summarizing the first two sentences,
which, as noted above, constitute our conclusion/main point. Thus,
it's the correct answer choice.

Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any other questions!