Q8

[geverett]

Answer choice B could be easy to select. I had it as a contender for a bit before landing on C. Here is why B is wrong and C is right:

Side note: If you are ever stuck between two or more answer choices something that has helped the light bulb turn on for me has been to re-read the question again to remind yourself what exactly it's asking.

So we are asked what "Bearden's innovative painting techniques illustrate"

(B) This is a deceitful answer choice because it's found in the same paragraph of the passage where they discuss Bearden's painting technique. However, this answer choice does not so much reflect what his painting technique was trying to illustrate but rather a belief that Bearden holds about how an artist should approach their craft. It's actually a poor answer choice even on that account though because there is no "desire to instruct" that can be inferred from this paragraph, but rather a belief Bearden holds to be true about how an artist should approach their craft.
(C) This is it. The direct support is found in lines 8-14 where the author starts out talking about Bearden's unique style, and then goes on to talk about how this suggested "some of the ways in which commonplace subjects could be forced to undergo a metamorphosis . . ." The word suggested as it is used in this passage is synonymous with illustrates. We've got a winner.

[joseph.carroll.555]

Is A is wrong due to the fact that just because some of his paintings depict human suffering does not necessarily mean he had a commitment to calling attention to human suffering? And also because the inclusion of human suffering is not so much a painting technique as it is subject matter?

[jbsailor]

Would someone mind elaborate on why A is wrong? I understand that there is textual evidence for C on lines 12-14. However, lines 27-29 discuss him moving "beyond the usual" (read: innovative) to call attention to "individual human suffering". It then goes on to describe how he captured this theme.. essentially, describing his technique. I see the actual word, "technique", is used elsewhere in lines 12-14, but it doesn't seem too far a reach to understand that lines 26-34 are a description of Bearden's technique.

[ohthatpatrick]

Sorry if it's unsatisfying, but it comes down to what you already mentioned: (C) has textual support from a paragraph that is about his "techniques", explicitly.

(A)'s support would come from a paragraph that is NOT about Bearden's techniques, but rather his subject matter / artistic vision.

The transition sentence in 20-23 signifies that we're done talking about techniques, and now we're talking about how well he represented African-American life.

You could also pick on the verb "committed to calling attention to human suffering".

Just because some of his paintings contained subject matter that was sad and portrayed individual human suffering doesn't allow us to infer that Bearden is committed to raising attention to this subject matter.

Still life artists painted bowls of fruit (for whatever reason). I think they were probably mainly interested in technique or the irony/absurdity of picking such a boring subject matter. I wouldn't be able to say that they were committed to calling attention to pears and bananas.

But mainly remember the first thing we said, because THAT is one of the secrets to improving at RC: make sure you "lock-in" the keywords the question stem provides with an applicable part of the passage.

In terms of our Passage Map, we would have said
P1: Bearden Double Triumph (techniques ... but also AA experience)
P2: Techniques
P3: AA Experience (sad)
P4: AA Experience (happy)