Art historian: More than any other genre of representational painting, still-life painting lends itself naturally to art whose goal is the artist’s self-expression, rather than merely the reflection of a preexisting external reality. This is because in still-life painting, the artist invariably chooses, modifies, and arranges the objects to be painted. Thus, the artist has considerably more control over the composition and subject of a still-life painting than over those of a landscape painting or portrait, for example.
Summary
Compared to other kinds of representational painting, still-life painting lends itself more naturally to art whose goal is self-expression. This is because in still-life painting, the artist always chooses, modifies, and arranges the objects to be painted, which gives the artist more control over the composition and subject of the painting than the artist would have with other kinds of representational painting.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
In other kinds of representational painting besides still-life, the artists does not always choose, modify, or arrange the objects to be painted.
The level of control an artist has over the composition and subject of a painting is relevant to whether a style of painting lends itself naturally to self-expression.
A
Landscape painting and portraiture are the artistic genres that lend themselves most naturally to the mere reflection of a preexisting external reality.
Unsupported. We’re not told whether landscape and portraiture lend themselves most to anything. Perhaps there are other kinds of representational painting that lend themselves even more to reflecting preexisting reality.
B
The only way in which artists control the composition and subject of a painting is by choosing, modifying, and arranging the objects to be represented in that painting.
Unsupported. Choosing, modifying, and arranging the objects represented is one way that artists can exercise control, but we’re not told that it’s the only way.
C
Nonrepresentational painting does not lend itself as naturally as still-life painting does to the goal of the artist’s self-expression.
Unsupported. The stimulus doesn’t say anything about nonrepresentational painting. (Landscape and portrait painting are representational.)
D
In genres of representational painting other than still-life painting, the artist does not always choose, modify, and arrange the objects to be painted.
Strongly supported. The fact artists can choose/modify/arrange objects gives the artist more control over a still-life painting than other kinds of representational painting. This implies that in other kinds of repres. painting, the artist doesn’t always choose/modify/arrange.
E
When painting a portrait, artists rarely attempt to express themselves through the choice, modification, or arrangement of the background elements against which the subject of the portrait is painted.
Unsupported. We’re told that in still-life, the artist always chooses/modifies/arranges the objects to be painted. This still allows for the artist to choose/modify/arrange in portrait painting, as long as the artist does not always have the ability to do so.