Self-study
Critic: Support Almost all of the paintings from our city’s art movement share two characteristics: bold brushwork and a sharp contrast of light and shadow. ███ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ███████████████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ███████████████ ████ ███ ████████████████████████ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ███████ ████████ ███ ████ ██████ ████████ ████ ███ ███████████ ███████████████ ██ ██████████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ █████████ ███ █████ ████ ████████ ████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████ ███ ███████ █ █████ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ███████
Summary
The author concludes that Blue Irises is not part of the city’s art movement.
Why does the author believe this?
Because all paintings from our city’s art movement either (1) have both bold brushwork and a sharp contrast of light and shadow, or (2) they are abstract paintings.
Blue Irises doesn’t have a sharp contrast of light and shadow. (So it’s not part of category (1)).
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that Blue Irises isn’t an abstract painting. (This is why the author thinks there’s no way the painting could be part of our city’s art movement. The lack of sharp contrast means it can’t be part of category (1). But we don’t know that it’s not part of category (2) — abstract art. The author assumes it’s not abstact art.)
22.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████
a
In spite of ███ ██████ ████ ██████ ██ ████████████████████
Not necessary, because (A) arguably weakens the argument if assumed. If Blue Irises is nonrepresentational, then it might be abstract art, in which case it might be part of our city’s art movement.
b
Blue Irises does ███ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ████
Not necessary, because we already know it doesn’t show a sharp contrast of light and shadow. Whether this is because it doesn’t depict shadows or for some other reason doesn’t affect the reasoning. What matters is whether Blue Irises is an abstract painting.
c
Blue Irises is ███ ██ ████████ █████████
Necessary, because if it were not true — if Blue Irises IS an abstract painting — then it is among the paintings that could be part of our city’s art movement without having a sharp contrast of light and shadow.
d
All of the ███████████████████ █████████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ ███████ ████ ██████████
Not necessary, because the argument concerns whether paintings are part of the city’s art movement — this doesn’t require any belief about all nonrepresentational paintings “ever produced in the city.” The concept of being produced in the city is different from being part of the city’s art movement. In any case, all that the author says about all nonrepresentational paintings is that they do not depict light or shadow. This doesn’t commit the author to thinking they have bold brushwork.
e
All of the █████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ████ ████ █ █████ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ███████ ████ ███ ████████ ███ █████████
Not necessary, because the argument concerns what is required in order to be part of the city’s art movement. One of the potential requirements is having both bold brushwork and a sharp contrast of light and shadow. But this doesn’t commit the author to thinking that every painting with sharp contrast of light and shadow is part of the city’s art movement. We don’t know, for example, whether those paintings all have bold brushwork.