Art's Decline

This topic has expert replies
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 67
Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2008 8:07 pm
Location: Philippines
Thanked: 3 times

Art's Decline

by fighting_cax » Sun Apr 19, 2009 3:25 pm
Reviewer: The book Art’s Decline argues that European painters today lack skills that were common among European painters of preceding centuries. In this the book must be right, since its analysis of 100 paintings, 50 old and 50 contemporary, demonstrates convincingly that none of the contemporary paintings are executed as skillfully as the older paintings.
Which of the following points to the most serious logical flaw in the reviewer's argument?
(A) The paintings chosen by the book's author for analysis could be those that most support the book's thesis.
(B) There could be criteria other than the technical skill of the artist by which to evaluate a painting.
(C) The title of the book could cause readers to accept the book's thesis even before they read the analysis of the paintings that supports it.
(D) The particular methods currently used by European painters could require less artistic skill than do methods used by painters in other parts of the world.
(E) A reader who was not familiar with the language of art criticism might not be convinced by the book's analysis of the 100 paintings.

OA is A

Please explain.

Legendary Member
Posts: 1161
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 2:52 am
Location: Sydney
Thanked: 23 times
Followed by:1 members

Re: Art's Decline

by mehravikas » Sun Apr 19, 2009 7:52 pm
I almost got the correct answer, my two serious contenders were A and B.

A - talks about that book is to prove that new art has declined so the contemporary paintings used as examples in the book must be supporting book's thesis i.e. to prove that new art has declined.

B - There could be other ways to analyze the painters other than skill used in this book

I chose B...got it wrong.
fighting_cax wrote:Reviewer: The book Art’s Decline argues that European painters today lack skills that were common among European painters of preceding centuries. In this the book must be right, since its analysis of 100 paintings, 50 old and 50 contemporary, demonstrates convincingly that none of the contemporary paintings are executed as skillfully as the older paintings.
Which of the following points to the most serious logical flaw in the reviewer's argument?
(A) The paintings chosen by the book's author for analysis could be those that most support the book's thesis.
(B) There could be criteria other than the technical skill of the artist by which to evaluate a painting.
(C) The title of the book could cause readers to accept the book's thesis even before they read the analysis of the paintings that supports it.
(D) The particular methods currently used by European painters could require less artistic skill than do methods used by painters in other parts of the world.
(E) A reader who was not familiar with the language of art criticism might not be convinced by the book's analysis of the 100 paintings.

OA is A

Please explain.

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 345
Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:53 pm
Location: Sao Paulo-Brazil
Thanked: 12 times
GMAT Score:660

by shibal » Thu Apr 23, 2009 12:58 pm
definitely A.
since the statement says that 100 paintings were chosen, it gives us a tip that we can trace down 'statistics' mismatches.
the conclusion basically says that contemporary painters suxs, when comparing to old painters. the argument is based when it gets 50 paintings from each time period....
however, if the author chose the paintings for an analysis that could support the book's thesis, the conclusion that contemporary painters suxs isn't valid.... weakening the argument... hope it helps....

Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 67
Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2008 8:07 pm
Location: Philippines
Thanked: 3 times

by fighting_cax » Wed Apr 29, 2009 1:29 am
Why can't choice B be the answer?

Legendary Member
Posts: 876
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:14 am
Thanked: 13 times

by ketkoag » Wed Apr 29, 2009 1:11 pm
fighting_cax wrote:Why can't choice B be the answer?
B is not correct coz it has unnecessarily mentioned the technical skills, but in the stimuli "skills" is mentioned. also in the stimuli, the criteria for evaluation is never discussed, so this would be a weak contender.

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 100
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2014 4:32 am

by ashley.com » Sun May 15, 2016 3:39 am
Clearly A

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 187
Joined: Tue Sep 13, 2016 12:46 am

by alanforde800Maximus » Sun May 20, 2018 4:01 pm
Bumping for experts review.