PrepTest 104, Section 1, Question 5
During the 1980s, Japanese collectors were very active(38 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(8 more words not shown)
- AImpressionist paintings first(14 more words not shown)
- BDuring the 1980s,(15 more words not shown)
- CSeveral nineteenth-century Impressionist(17 more words not shown)
- DDuring the 1960s(18 more words not shown)
- EDuring the 1980s,(17 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Maybe owning a European painting was fashionable. A collector could want the status of owning one without particularly caring about its visual qualities.
The author instead says the buying pattern reflects a taste for aesthetic attributes of nineteenth-century Impressionist paintings. That could be right. But purchases alone don't tell us the buyers' reasons. Aesthetic enjoyment and fashion could also overlap; we shouldn't assume the pattern settles which explanation matters.
What we’re looking for
We're asked to support the aesthetic-preference explanation. My prediction is a connection between features of these paintings and features the collectors already like. For example, if the paintings used a certain color palette that these collectors valued, that would give us a reason to think the paintings' appearance helped drive the purchases. That's a hypothetical connection to look for, not a fact we've been told about their tastes.
Working the answers
- A
Popularity in Europe at the beginning of the twentieth century doesn't explain Japanese purchases in the 1980s. Even if we know when European collectors first liked the paintings, we still don't know what attracted these later buyers.
- B
A growing economy could help explain why collectors had more money available to buy art. It doesn't explain why they especially bought these Impressionist paintings or whether the appeal lay in their aesthetic qualities. Greater means and a particular artistic taste could coexist, so economic expansion doesn't itself resolve the proposed explanation.
- CCorrect
The Impressionist painters adopted techniques and visual effects already found in Japanese prints that are highly esteemed in Japan. That gives us the connection we wanted: features of these European paintings resemble artistic features with an established source of appeal in Japan.
It becomes more plausible that collectors were drawn to those qualities, rather than the purchase pattern merely reflecting money to spend or the prestige of foreign art. C doesn't prove every buyer had the same motive. It supports the explanation of the striking pattern among many collectors.
- D
Prices in the 1960s and 1970s don't tell us why Japanese collectors bought the paintings in the 1980s. The comparison with older European masters also doesn't identify the visual qualities the Japanese buyers preferred. A high earlier price isn't evidence of that particular aesthetic motive.
- E
Purchases of twentieth-century Japanese works concern different art. Those purchases could reflect aesthetic preferences, investment choices, or other motives, but E doesn't connect them to features of the nineteenth-century European paintings. C supplies that missing connection through shared techniques and visual effects.
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