Self-study
P1
For some years before the outbreak of World War I, a number of painters in different European countries developed works of art that some have described as prophetic: paintings that by challenging viewers' habitual ways of perceiving the world of the present are thus said to anticipate a future world that would be very different. ███
Other People's View ·
Belief that pre-WWI paintings were prophetic
"Prophetic" meaning that they asked viewers to change the way they view the world, like these paintings were prophesying the future world to come.
Fact: New Style ·
These painters displayed various styles but all broke with tradition of representational art
This is a common theme in "art" passages in RC. Usually, we only talk about art or artists that invented something new.
P2
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Other People's View ·
These painters anticipated social and political changes
Their break with tradition was so fundamental that some critics credited these artists with having anticipated political and social disruptions of WWI. Huh?
Other People's View ·
Their prophetic power is what's most interesting about them
Really? Not the new artistic techniques?
P3
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Concession ·
Artists are free to speculate about the future, like anyone else
I get the feeling that the author's setting up here to disagree with the critics.
Author's Critique ·
The painting's aesthetic innovations are what is most important
The author disagrees with the critics. This makes sense. It's just a weird argument that these renowned painters are remembered for... not their art but rather their social / political prophesies.
Example ·
Picasso; Braque; cubism
Picasso and Braque told everyone that that they were trying to innovate modes of representation; that they were not concerned with reforming society.
P4
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Author’s Critique ·
Not all changes in art were followed by dramatic world events
Example ·
Delacroix
Delacroix made stylistic changes in response to (not in anticipation of) social changes.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
5.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ████████
a
The author describes ██ ████████ ███████████ ██████████ ███ ██████████████ ██ ████ ███████████ ████████ ██ ███████████ ██████████████ ███ ████ ████████ ████ ███████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ████████ ███████████████
This is the best answer. P1 describes the artistic phenomenon — certain artists painted stuff that was new. Next the author describes one interpration — these artists were prophetic about politics/society. Then the author proposes an alternative interpretation — these artists were actually just focused on artistic innovation. Finally the author presents support to show that these artists probably weren’t predicting changes in politics/society.
b
The author describes ██ ████████ ███████████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ███████████ ███████████ ████ ██ ███ ████████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███ ████ ██████████ █████ ███ ████████████ ██ █████ █████████████
Notice that (B) doesn’t contain anything about competing views — there’s nothing here that capture the idea that the author was disagreeing with something. That’s an easy way to eliminate this answer. In addition, the author doesn’t end by speculating about the importance of the consequences of the pre-WWI painters’ art.
c
The author describes ██ ████████ ███████████ ███████████ ███ ███████████ ██████████████ ██ ████ ███████████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ████ █████████ ████ ██ █████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██ ██ ████████
(C) suggests the author defends the traditional interpretation of the artistic phenomenon. But the author actually rejects the interpretation that’s discussed in the beginning. So it wouldn’t make sense to say the author dismisses criticisms of the interpretation brought up in the beginning.
d
The author describes ██ ████████ ███████████ ████████ ███ █████████ ███████████████ ██ ███ ███████████ █████████ ████ ███████████████ ██ ██████ ██ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ███████████ ███████████████
The author doesn’t dismiss both interpretations. One of the two interpretations is the author’s — she supports her own interpretation and rejects the other. But she doesn’t dismiss her own interpretation.
e
The author describes ██ ████████ ███████████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ███████████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ███████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████████
Notice that (E) doesn’t contain anything about competing views — there’s nothing here that captures the idea that the author was disagreeing with something. That’s an easy way to eliminate this answer. In addition, the author doesn’t end by advocating that we try to recreate anything.