#15 - Lea: Contemporary art has become big business

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Point at Issue. The correct answer choice is (D)

Statistically, this is a difficult question, and only about one in three students
selects the correct answer. In part, this difficulty rises from the fact that the disagreement identified
in the correct answer does not arise from the conclusion, but from the premises of each speaker.

Lea argues that contemporary art is big business and that the work of contemporary artists lacks
spontaneity and creativity, and this can be proven by visiting any art gallery. Susan counters by
stating that spontaneous and creative work is present in most of the smaller, independent galleries,
and on that basis she concludes that Lea is incorrect.

Answer choice (A): Both speakers would disagree with this statement, and dual disagreement is
grounds for eliminating the answer.

Answer choice (B): This is a difficult answer choice and one that most students reasonably hold
as a Contender. Lea would obviously agree with this statement. Susan’s position is less certain,
and a large part of the uncertainty revolves around the phase “most galleries” in the answer choice.
Susan states that “One can still find spontaneous, innovative new artwork in most of the smaller,
independent galleries.” If smaller, independent galleries make up the vast majority of all galleries,
then Susan would likely disagree with the statement in the answer choice. But there is no assurance
that smaller, independent galleries make up the majority of all galleries (they could be outnumbered
by the larger galleries), and under that circumstance, Susan could agree with the statement. Since
Susan’s position is uncertain, this answer is incorrect.

There is a second issue underlying Susan’s statement that has an impact on our assessment of this
answer. Susan states that “one can still find” creative artwork in most small galleries. But finding
such artwork in those galleries does not exclude the possibility that other artwork in the same gallery
lacks spontaneity and creativity. If that were the case, both speakers would agree with the statement.

Answer choice (C): Apply the Agree/Disagree Test: Lea agrees with the statement, but Susan
does not comment on whether contemporary art is big business. Her statement that there are
smaller, independent galleries is not an implicit admission that the whole field has become overly
commercialized. This answer is incorrect because there is no way to know Susan’s position, and thus
this answer fails the Test.

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer. Again, the Agree/Disagree Test crystallizes the issue:
Susan clearly agrees with the statement whereas Lea, who said that a visit to any art gallery shows
that contemporary artists utterly lack creativity and spontaneity, disagrees with the statement.

Note that the reference to “new artwork” in the answer choice is important because it eliminates
any discussion about older creative and spontaneous artwork that may be in galleries. The quantity
indicator “some” also plays a role since it allows for a single example to suffice (see answer choice
(B) for the impact a quantity indicator can have).

Answer choice (E): Lea would likely agree with the statement in this answer choice because she
states that “nowadays art has less to do with self-expression.” Susan’s position is again uncertain.
Although she states that innovative contemporary artwork is available in galleries, she does not
make a comparison between the self-expression of contemporary art and the self-expression of older
art. There is no assumption in her argument that spontaneous, innovative new artwork is not less
concerned with self-expression, let alone “much less.”

[akanshalsat]

Hello! I initially chose B for this, and I can see how B is too broad b/c it says "most galleries" in general,

I think I got confused with the use of Most in the stimulus for susan and "some" in D... could someone clarify wh D is correct?

[Adam Tyson]

Try applying the agree/disagree test to this one, akanshalsat. What would Lea say in response to answer D? She would say that's false, because no art galleries show that kind of work. Now, what would Susan say? She'd say that's true, because it's exactly what she said in her argument! Since we have evidence that one of the speakers would agree with the statement and the other would disagree with it, that's the point at issue.

Now apply that same test to answer B, and you won't have any idea what Susan would say about it, because she only talks about some small art galleries, and gives no indication what she might think about most art galleries. If we don't know what she would say, that can't be the point at issue!

[JKP2018]

This question is found on pg 645 of the 2018 LR Bible, for reference.

To me, the most natural reading of the two discussions is as follows:

Lea: "Contemporary art has become big business." Now she lists some supporting reasons why.
Susan: "I disagree." Now she lists her reasons.

What do the two disagree about? You could argue that it is the supporting reasons, but that doesn't seem to fit the dialogue structure. The focus is on the supporting reasons, but the bigger ticket are the first two statements, no? If we changed context:

Lea: The conservatives will win the election. Their leader is more charismatic.
Suan: I disagree. He comes across like a robot.

or

Lea: The Yankees will win the World Series. Their bullpen is the strongest.
Susan: I disagree. Their bullpen gives up the most home runs.

In both cases, though Susan is countering Lea's supporting point, her disagreement is with the idea as a whole. She's disagreeing centrally about whether the conservatives and Yankees will win, not about particulars with the leader or bullpen.

As this is the first time this question has come up, I'm wondering if I'm alone in thinking this. If I found this exact question on the LSAT, I don't know how I could think of any other answer but C: They are disagreeing about whether art has become big business.

Any insight here would be appreciated. Thank you.

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi JKP,

Point at issue questions are tricky. We aren't looking for the MAIN point at issue or the central disagreement. We are looking for a statement that we can fully prove that one person would say yes, I agree with that statement, while the other would say no, I disagree.

Here's the problem with your proposal of answer choice (C): We don't know what Susan thinks. We know she disagrees with some of what Susan says. But she isn't clear on if the disagreement is with the whole argument, or just with supporting facts. What we do know, for certain, is that she disagrees with at least one supporting fact. And that's described in answer choice (D).

Hope that helps!

[JKP2018]

Thanks. That does make sense, and it encourages a very strict reading of the text. "I disagree" could be applied to either the argument as a whole or just in reference to the supporting point. I don't think it's a particularly natural way of thinking, but it gives a strategy to troubleshoot these questions: look at exactly what is said.

Thanks again.