There is actually no textual support for (B). The author does not argue that the 19th century's knowledge of light and movement (provided by photography) *inspired* the abstract works characteristic of modern art. Rather, she says that since photography basically displaced painting for portraiture, painters over time had more freedom to vary their subject matter, which eventually gave rise to the abstract creations characteristic of modern art. See Lines 60-64.
Now consider (E). "Since photography preempted painting as the means of obtaining portraits, painters had more freedom to vary their subject matter"--this implies that the author would agree with (E): "once painters painted fewer conventional portraits, they had greater opportunity to move beyond the literal depiction of objects."
Hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any additional questions.
naryanshukleJuly 31, 2020
@Mehran I ran into the same problem, as I thought there was explicit support for B in lines 46-51, where it says: "artists like Degas studied the elements of light and movement captured by instantaneous photography and used their new understanding...in their work." Could you help clarify why this would not support B? Thanks!
shunheAugust 4, 2020
Hi @naryanshukle,
Thanks for the question! This is pretty subtle, so let’s do a close reading of those lines to figure out why they’re wrong. We’re told that “impressionist artists like Degas studied the elements of light and movement captured by instantaneous photography and used their new understanding of the way our perceptions distort reality to try to more accurately capture reality in their work.” So what are they studying? Well, they’re studying elements of light and movement captured by instantaneous photography (as opposed to studying light and movement themselves). And what knowledge did they get? An understanding, not of light and movement, but of how our perceptions distort reality. So (B) mischaracterizes what it is exactly that the artists are studying, since it says that it’s “the knowledge of light and movement provided by photography” that inspires. On top of that, the answer choice tells us that it “inspired the abstract works characteristic of modern art.” But we’re only told about “impressionist artists like Degas,” which could be a very small subset of impressionist artists. Both of those are reasons that (E) ends up being a better answer choice than (B).
Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.
