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

Mehran July 6, 2017

@Kahanding (D) does not pass the Must Be True prong of Main Point questions and it is definitely not the main point here.

Nowhere in the stimulus is anything mentioned about the general public being able to or not able to understand the theories on which abstract painting is based.

This passage is about why figurative painting revived in the late 1970s. The reason set forth by the author? "People want to look at recognizable images."

(E) is the correct answer because it restates this conclusion, i.e. "The artistic preference of the art viewing public stimulated the revival."

Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Madelyn-Luskey June 6, 2018

do small things like "general public" in the answer choice vs. "art viewing public" in the passage become easier to recognize with more practice??

Anita June 16, 2018

@Madelyn-Luskey

Subtle changes like that do become more noticeable as you practice more, but also just as you learn to look for that.

In this case, while it does help to note the switch from "art viewing public" to "general public," the most important reason D is wrong is that it addresses an issue that the prompt doesn't: whether the public (of any sort) can understand the theories in abstract paintings. In fact, it seems like it assumes that the art-viewing public CAN parse them out, but it takes work ("sorting out art theories...")

Remone-Davis October 13, 2018

?

Remone-Davis October 13, 2018

Im not sure what the main point is

Mehran October 13, 2018

Hi @Remone-Davis, thanks for your post. The main point can be found in the first couple of sentences of this stimulus: "There is no mystery as to why figurative painting revived in the late 1970s. People want to look at recognizable images." That's it. People were tired of abstract art and their artistic preferences stimulated the revival of figurative painting in the late 1970s.

Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

Remone-Davis January 18, 2019

Why is the explanation button missing ? I need explanations.

Ravi February 14, 2019

@Remone-Davis,

While there are video explanations for most questions, there are still
some for which there are not video explanations out yet. In the
meantime, I'm happy to go through a written explanation of this
question. Let's take a look.

We're told that figurative painting was revived in the late 1970s
because people want to look at recognizable things. The rest of the
stimulus is used to support the overall conclusion of the stimulus,
which is expressed in the first two sentences ("There is no mystery as
to why figurative painting revived in the late 1970s. People want to
look at recognizable images").

For supporting the conclusion, we're told that abstract painting
doesn't provide people with empathy as realistic paintings do, and
perhaps members of the art viewing public resented abstract art
because it rejected the real world.

The question asks, "Which one of the following most accurately
expresses the main point of the passage?"

For main point questions, it's best to anticipate the main point
before looking at the answer choices. That way, we have the conclusion
in mind and are simply looking for an answer choice that paraphrases
the conclusion we've identified in the stimulus. In the passage, the
main point is the first two sentences of the stimulus. People's desire
to look at recognizable images explains why figurative painting
revived in the late 1970s. We know this is the conclusion because the
rest of the stimulus/passage serves as supporting evidence for this
assertion.

Now that we've identified the conclusion, let's look for the answer
choice that best expresses this.

(A) says, "Abstract paintings often include shapes or forms that are
suggestive of real objects or emotions."

The argument actually claims that abstract paintings deal more with
reflecting art theories than they do with real things, so (A) is out.

(B) says, "The art-viewing public wished to see traditional subjects
treated in a nontraditional manner."

We were told that people want to look at recognizable things, so
people desired a revival of realism, which is older in tradition than
its abstractionism counterpart. As a result, (B) is out.

(C) says, "Paintings that depict a recognizable physical world rather
than the emotional world of the artist’s life require more artistic
talent to create."

The problem with (C) is that the argument in the stimulus doesn't make
a claim regarding talent. Rather, the argument makes a claim about
public preference ("People want to look at recognizable images"). As a
result, we can get rid of this answer choice.

(D) says, "The general public is unable to understand the theories on
which abstract painting is based."

The public's ability to understand (or lack thereof) is not something
that is discussed in the stimulus. What the argument is concerned with
is the public's preference. Since this answer choice deals with
something that isn't discussed in the passage, we can get rid of it.

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

(E) provides us with an excellent paraphrasing of the first two
sentences of the stimulus, which is what we had identified as the
overall conclusion/main point of the stimulus. This answer choice is
great, and it's the correct answer choice.

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

Shannon May 27, 2022

hello,

I was wondering if someone could provide a reasoning for why each of the questions in this practice set deemed as "flawed". for example, providing a list with the question number and beside it that the conclusion is too broad based on the premises etc beside it.

Emil-Kunkin June 7, 2022

Hi,
I think this is actually a great exercise for you to try out! As you go through this question type, try to consider why each argument is flawed- which should prepare you well for error, weaken, and strengthen questions in the future. You should also take a look at the "33 common lsat flaws" resource, which I think is in the errors in reasoning lesson.