Reading comp PrepTest 111 · Section 2 · Question 9

Topic: Humanities

Paragraph 1

• Paragraph note
  • Author on Bearden's two accomplishments (uses innovative painting techniques and expresses the variety of African-American experience)
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • List of Bearden's two accomplishments, according to the author:
    • Innovating painting techniques and using art to explore the variety of the African-American experience
  • Author's attitude: "double triumph" (first sentence), "perfecting the innovative painting techniques he pioneered" (last sentence), "reveals an artist engaged" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

• Paragraph note
  • Bearden's technical innovations (layered, fragmented style; transformed commonplace subjects; respect to craft)
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Author's view:
    • Bearden had a "unique layered and fragmented style," which he used to transform everyday subjects (first sentence)
    • Bearden thought that artists must be aware of the "resources and limitations" of painting (last sentence)
  • Author's attitude: "unique layered and fragmented style" (first sentence), "the resourceful artist" (first sentence) , "pay their craft the respect ... energies" (last sentence)

Paragraph 3

• Paragraph note
  • Bearden's representation of the African-American experience (revealed suffering and social reality of Depression-era subjects; muted colors)
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • List of ways Bearden represented the African-American experience in his paintings, according to the author:
    • Bearden painted during the Great Depression, showing individual suffering (second and third sentences)
    • They used abstract but familiar settings to express a complex social reality (fourth sentence)
    • They used sad, muted colors to represent "moods of melancholy or despair" (fifth and last sentences)
  • Comparison, according to the author:
    • Bearden's paintings went beyond the typical "protest painting" of this era by revealing individual human suffering (third sentence)
  • Author's attitude: "so passionately dedicated" (first sentence), "succeed so well" (first sentence), "powerful" (second sentence), "grim and brooding" (second sentence), "move beyond" (third sentence), "reveal instances of human suffering" (third sentence), "express the complex social reality" (fourth sentence), "without compromising their integrity" (fourth sentence), "important element" (fifth sentence), "also served as symbols" (last sentence)

Paragraph 4

• Paragraph note
  • More on Bearden's representation of the African-American experience (vividly represented happy scenes to depict fullness of African-American experience)
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Author's view:
    • Bearden also painted happy scenes with the same complexity (first sentence)
    • Bearden helps us to see the richness and depth of the African-American experience (last sentence)
  • Comparisons, according to the author:
    • Bearden's art avoided cliches (like the ones in journalism & photography) (second sentence)
    • Bearden's art focused on the "poetry" — scenes of family, religion, and celebration — rather than the "prose" like other artists (third sentence)
  • Author's attitude: "same vividness" (first sentence), "world long hidden by the cliches ... photography" (second sentence), "insists that we truly see ... using the fresh light of his creative vision" (fourth sentence), "created strange visual harmonies" (last sentence), "reflected the multiple rhythms, textures, and mysteries of life" (last sentence)

Main Point: Roman Bearden used innovative painting techniques to represent the African-American experience with novel depth and complexity.

Innovative Subject: This passage utilizes an Innovative [Subject] Meta-Structure. In such a structure, the author describes why something or someone was unique, pioneering, or disruptive. In this Meta-Structure, "[Subject]" is a placeholder for whatever the subject of the passage happens to be. The subject of this passage is an artist, so we can think of this as an Innovative Artist passage.

In passages that use an Innovative Subject Meta-Structure, the main point will be the author's opinion on the innovative subject. We should look for whether the author provides a conclusion that summarizes their opinion on the innovative subject. The first paragraph gives us a pretty good summary of the author's opinion, so we can use that as our anticipated main point. We could also condense that paragraph to make our own main point: "Roman Bearden used innovative painting techniques to represent the African American experience with novel depth and complexity."

Comparison: The most prominent minor Meta-Structure is the comparison. This isn't surprising. In an Innovative [Subject] passage, the author will need to compare the subject to others to show what makes their subject so unique. Here, the author compares Bearden to "protest paintings" and artists who tried to capture the "prose" (speech, presumably) of Harlem as opposed to its "poetry" (family life).

Wow, that's a lot of author's attitude in that passage! Your passage should be striped with whatever color you use to highlight the author's tonal phrases. Clearly, the author is a fan of one Roman Bearden. This laudatory tone is typical of many humanities passages — especially those that use an Innovative [Subject] or Importance of [Subject] Meta-Structure. We'll get a few questions about the author's attitude, but don't expect any of them to be as obvious as "Which of the following best captures the author's attitude toward Bearden?" Instead, the questions will likely ask why the author liked Bearden and what the author thinks about other art of this era.