Hey Patanjali,
Good questions - "art" has a few irregular uses but for the most part it's an "uncountable" singular noun like "air" or "music". You'd use it as:
The French and Italians are known for their taste in art. ("art" is one entity)
Michaelangelo's David may be the world's most impressive piece of art. ("piece of art" refers to one particular example of art. It's putting a unit of measure on something uncountable, like saying "a liter of water")
Now, the "irregular" use is related to the fact that there are many types of art. Literature, music, sculpture, painting...there are several types of art, and it's common to refer to them as "the arts". So you could say:
New York City is considered by some to be the worldwide capital of culture, cuisine, and the arts. ("the arts" refers to the different types of art)
In this way, "art" acts a bit like "water", which has a particular-case, irregular form of plural (the kayak succumbed to the raging waters that battered it through the night...).
______________________________________________
Hopefully that sheds some light - but as I mentioned above, the question in this thread is a pretty poorly-written question so I doubt you need to concern yourself too much about the singularity/plurality/meaning of "art"...
Brian Galvin
GMAT Instructor
Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep
Looking for GMAT practice questions? Try out the Veritas Prep Question Bank.
Learn More.
