PrepTest 119, Section 2, Question 5
Futurist: Artists in the next century will be(45 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(11 more words not shown)
- AArt patrons tend(18 more words not shown)
- BArt patrons tend(18 more words not shown)
- CArtists are as(18 more words not shown)
- DArtists tend to(19 more words not shown)
- EArt patrons tend(10 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The patrons support the social order. Do the artists have to share that view? A patron supplies money or other support. I can imagine a wealthy donor liking the way society works and still telling an artist, “Make whatever you want. I just like your art.” The donor's political beliefs and the artist's message don't have to match.
That's the jump in the futurist's prediction. We know where artists will get most of their support, and we know what those supporters believe. But the conclusion is about what the art will say. “Subversive” art would challenge the existing order. Why should patrons' approval of that order stop artists from challenging it?
What we’re looking for
We're asked for a principle that most supports the inference. Then connect the funding to the message. If patrons withhold support from artists whose work opposes their views, artists dependent on that support have a reason to avoid those messages. That's what I'd look for in the choices.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
Patrons tend not to support artists whose work expresses opposing social and political views. Now their beliefs matter to their funding decisions. Since these patrons overwhelmingly support the existing order, artists who attack it are less likely to receive the private support on which artists will largely depend. That makes the prediction of relatively little subversive art more convincing. The tendency needn't mean every patron controls every detail of every work.
- B
Being more interested in artistic technique than politics doesn't establish that patrons will withhold funding over a political message. It could fit our imagined donor who cares about the art and lets the artist say whatever they want. We need a connection between political disagreement and support, which B doesn't supply.
- C
Artists being just as prone to attack the social order as defend it doesn't support a prediction that challenges will be rare. Nor does C explain why dependence on private funding would change what artists produce. It leaves us without the restriction the futurist needs.
- D
This is tempting because artists becoming more critical after gaining independence suggests that patronage may restrain them. But becoming more critical doesn't tell us how critical they were beforehand. They could already be highly critical while dependent on patrons and become even more critical later. D also concerns what happens after that dependence ends, while the forecast concerns artists who remain largely dependent. A gives the more direct principle about what patrons will support.
- E
Artists are the exception to the patrons' opposition to change. That leaves open the very possibility the futurist needs to restrict: patrons could support changes initiated by the artists they fund. E doesn't guarantee that support, but it supplies no reason to expect artists' challenges to be rare.
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