Henry Ossawa Tanner's 1893 painting The Banjo Lesson, which depicts an elderly man teaching a boy to play the banjo,...
GMAT Information and Ideas : (Ideas) Questions
Henry Ossawa Tanner's 1893 painting The Banjo Lesson, which depicts an elderly man teaching a boy to play the banjo, is regarded as a landmark in the history of works by Black artists in the United States. Scholars should be cautious when ascribing political or ideological values to the painting, however: beliefs and assumptions that are commonly held now may have been unfamiliar to Tanner and his contemporaries, and vice versa. Scholars who forget this fact when discussing The Banjo Lesson therefore ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "Henry Ossawa Tanner's 1893 painting The Banjo Lesson, which depicts an elderly man teaching a boy to play the banjo, is regarded as a landmark in the history of works by Black artists in the United States." |
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| "Scholars should be cautious when ascribing political or ideological values to the painting, however:" |
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| "beliefs and assumptions that are commonly held now may have been unfamiliar to Tanner and his contemporaries, and vice versa." |
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| "Scholars who forget this fact when discussing The Banjo Lesson therefore ______" |
|
Part B: Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: Scholars should be careful not to impose modern political interpretations on Tanner's historical painting because beliefs from different time periods may not align.
Argument Flow: The passage establishes the painting's importance, then warns against anachronistic interpretation by explaining that modern beliefs and assumptions may differ significantly from those of Tanner's era, leading to a logical consequence for scholars who ignore this historical context.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The passage warns that modern beliefs might be different from Tanner's time, and vice versa
- Scholars who forget this historical context difference would likely make the mistake of judging the painting by modern standards rather than the standards of Tanner's era
- They'd be applying inappropriate criteria - either too modern or missing the historical perspective entirely
- The consequence should involve some kind of inappropriate judgment or analysis that stems from this temporal mismatch between modern and historical viewpoints
- The right answer should describe scholars making an analytical error by applying the wrong historical framework or standards to the painting
- This directly matches our prethinking about applying inappropriate standards
- The phrase "may not be historically appropriate" perfectly captures the core issue of using modern beliefs to judge a historical work
- It logically follows from the warning about differences between current and past assumptions
- This focuses on conflating Tanner's views with his contemporaries' views
- The passage warns about differences between modern vs. historical periods, not about distinguishing individual artists within the same time period
- This suggests scholars would stop analyzing the painting and instead focus on Tanner's political activity
- The passage doesn't suggest scholars would abandon art analysis; it warns about doing art analysis inappropriately
- This misses the point about anachronistic interpretation entirely
- This assumes the painting was meant as a critique of fellow artists
- The passage never mentions other artists or any critique relationship
- This introduces content completely absent from the passage's discussion