Art critic: An arrangement of objects tends to be aesthetically pleasing to the extent that it gives the impression t...

Emil-Kunkin on April 27, 2022

Hi RachP,

The stimulus tells us that art is pleasing if the viewer gets the impression that the arranger succeeded. In A, people do get the impression that the arranger succeeded, despite an error. A then concluded that the panels should be rearranged to reflect the intention. However, we do not care about the artist's actual intent, only the impression that the artist achieved their goal.

D, however, only relates to the appearance that the artist got what she wanted. The idea that pleasingness is related to the impression of intentionality does support the idea that a more symmetrical arrangement would be more pleasing, since it would seem more intentional.

mitchellgray on July 3 at 12:56AM

I was also between answers B and D. I picked the right answer but it was more of a feeling than something I could articulate, so I also wanted to know why D is better than B. Emil's answer accidentally discusses A instead of B though. Could I receive an updated explanation?

Emil-Kunkin on July 8 at 05:03PM

Yeah the original question was unclear if it was asking about A or B.

The passage tells us that something is pleasing if it gives the impression it was arranged intentionally.

B says that since one piece is less pleasing than others, it was probably not arranged properly. This just isn't supported by the passage. We need to use the passage to prove the answer choice right, and the passage does not deal with relative aesthetics, only absolute. A work can be less pleasing than other yet still objectively very pleasing.

D is something we can directly process from the passage. It deals with two possibilities and says that the one that looks more intentional will be more pleasing.