#6 - Global Reference, Main Point

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (E).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice.

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[chian9010]

I was thinking in between B and E and then decided to select E. However, could anyone tell me why B is incorrect?

James' book is about African influence on visual art in the States. However, from the first paragraph where the author mentioned about his research began by studying African-Americaqn crafts of the eighteenth and nineteenth centries, did't he find the connection between African-American art and the African artisanship?

[James Finch]

Hi Chian,

The major issue with answer choice (B) is that it downplays the importance of Porter's book about African-American art's links to Africa, the one that the passage devotes almost its entire length to talking about, in favor of the unfinished project mentioned only in the last sentence. And even then, the scope is off: the last sentence describes the project as "exploring the influence of African art on the art of the Western world generally," which would include not just the Americas, but Europe and Oceania as well. So (B), while initially attractive, doesn't fit the idea of being the main point of the passage, which is devoted to illustrating the importance of Porter's book linking African-American and African art.

Hope this clears things up!

[Coleman]

I eliminated the answer choice (E) because this seems like a half right, half wrong choice to me.
(E) states "While not the first body of scholarship to treat the subject of African-American art, Porter's work was the first to show the connections between African-American art and African artisanship."
However, where exactly in the passage mentions that Porter was not the first body of scholarship to treat the subject of African American art?

I mainly referred to line1-6 and 26-32 to analyze the main point, but couldn't see why the first part of the section is the correct statement about Porter.

[KelseyWoods]

Hi Coleman!

Take another look at lines 27-34: "At the time of its first printing in 1943, only two other books devoted exclusively to the accomplishments of African-American artists existed. Both of these books were written by Alain LeRoy Locke, a professor at the university where Porter also taught. While these earlier studies by Locke are interesting for being the first to survey the field, neither addressed the critical issue of African precursors; Porter's book addressed this issue."

These lines make it clear that Locke wrote two books on African-American artists before Porter published his first book and that Locke, not Porter, was the first to survey the field of African-American art. Thus, there is support for the part of answer choice (E) which states that "While not the first body of scholarship to treat the subject of African-American art...". Porter's work was not the first body of scholarship to treat the subject of African-American art; Locke's work was.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey