G: The group of works exhibited in this year’s Metropolitan Art Show

Question

G:  The group of works exhibited in this year’s Metropolitan Art Show reveals a bias in favor of photographers. Equal numbers of photographers, sculptors, and painters submitted works that met the traditional criteria for the show, yet more photographs were exhibited than either sculptures or paintings. As you know, each artist was allowed to submit work in one medium only.

H:  How could there have been bias? All submitted works that met the traditional criteria—and only those works—were exhibited in the show.

Which one of the following, if true, most strongly supports G’s allegation of bias?

(A) If an artist has had one of his or her works exhibited in the Metropolitan Art Show, that artist has an advantage in getting commissions and selling works over artists who have never had a work exhibited in the show.

(B) The fee for entering photographs in the Metropolitan Art Show was $25 per work submitted, while the fee for each painting or sculpture submitted was $75.

(C) The committee that selected from the submitted works the ones to be exhibited in this year’s Metropolitan Art Show had four members: one photographer, one sculptor, one painter, and one who works in all three media but is the least known of the four members.

(D) Reviews of this year’s Metropolitan Art Show that appeared in major newspapers and magazines tended to give more coverage to the photographs in the show than to the sculptures and paintings that were exhibited.

(E) In previous years, it has often happened that more paintings or more sculptures were exhibited in the Metropolitan Art Show than photographs, even though the total number of works exhibited each year does not vary widely.

Source: LSAT

Same passage with different stem question:  LINK

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

(A) No. The passage concerns the number of works submitted and displayed at the Art Show, not the rate of sales of the art.

(B) Yes.  Clearly, putting a larger financial burden on painters and sculptors shows a bias.

(C) No. This shows that the committee was balanced.

(D) No. This is irrelevant. G’s allegation of bias is directed toward those who selected the works of art to be displayed, not toward the news coverage of the show.

(E) No. This suggests that the imbalance is not intentional.

puneetj88 · Answer

B
Equal number of photographers, sculptors and painters entered the show but the fees for photographs was kept at $25 and fees for sculptures and paintings was kept at $75. This created a bias amongst the artists to enter photographs as the respective fees is one third of the other allowed mediums.

sumitshrestha · Answer

Group of work exhibited showed bias - it's hard to understand how charging less is bias towards the work exhibited. There was an equal number of submission from each category submitted but more of photographs selected. Charging more fee for submission is not the same as selecting the ones to exhibit.

Charging less is correct in that it is biased towards photographs but that is only for submission of the work and not the selection.

Thought option D made sense, it tells us photographs get more coverage therefore that gives us a reason why more of photographs were chosen from an equal number of submission.

Have I gone wrong somewhere?

Talayva · Answer

D shows bias by Newspapers , not by the exhibition people . Moreover , consider the premise - Equal number of photographers , artists and sculptors entered . Inorder to ensure that all have equal opportunity , everyone must have equal chance to enter . BY raising fee for other categories , exhibition maintained bias

Talayva · Answer

What does past have to do with the present ? This kind of logic is a classic fallacy in GMAT

jawele · Answer

Hello

Could anybody please share some thoughts on E. What is that in the answer choice that makes you to eliminate it? I suppose the word "often", which opens the possibility in variation and implies that sometimes there're more sculptures and paintings than photographs, and sometimes there're more photographs than those two things.

GMATNinja ,  gmat1393 ,  GMATNinjaTwo ,  nightblade354

Thanks

gmat1393 · Answer

What happened in previous years is irrelevant to the argument at hand since we are concerned about the current situation not past.
This makes this choice Out of scope of the argument.

Hope this helps!

GMATNinja · Answer

As  gmat1393  pointed out, (E) focuses on previous years and therefore does not provide strong evidence about  this  year's show.

I'd just like to add one note: to answer the question, we need to find an answer choice that most strongly  supports  G's allegation that the selected works "reveals a bias in favor of photographers."

Answer choice (E) tells us that in previous years "more paintings or more sculptures were exhibited in the Metropolitan Art Show than photographs." This actually could  weaken  G's argument, because it provides evidence that the selection committee (or whoever makes these decisions) has chosen other media over photography in the past. So, the show is not necessarily "bias  in favor of photographers" -- there just happened to be more photographs this year, just as there happened to be more paintings or sculptures in previous years. But, again, whether the selection committee was biased in the past does not tell us whether the committee was biased this year.

Choice (B), on the other hand, provides strong direct evidence related to  this  year's show. (B) tells us that it is more expensive to submit a painting or sculpture than to submit a photograph. So the barrier to entry is higher for photographs. This represents a clear bias, one that would apply to  this  year's show. Again, we are looking for the choice that "most strongly supports G’s allegation of bias", and (B) is the best option.

I hope that helps!

Arjun02 · Answer

"Equal numbers of photographers, sculptors, and painters submitted works that met the traditional criteria for the show, yet more photographs were exhibited than either sculptures or paintings."

As per this statement, the entries for photographs = the entries for sculptors = the entries for paintings. Then how come B is right?

I chose E because of this particular statement as it makes the point of cost void since entries in all categories same.

GMATNinja  can you help me with this doubt?

Sparta_750 · Answer

Hi  Arjun02

As pointed out by you, equal number of artists (lets use a collective term) from each category were 'eligible'. But there is no information on 'entries'

(B) Correct: Option states that the entry fee was high for non-photographers. If true, it strengthens the case for bias against non-photographers.

(D) Incorrect: If there were more photographs exhibited, it is reasonable if these photographs would be highlighted more in coverage. Also, there is no information on whether the organizers have had any role to play in this.

(E) Incorrect: It talks about previous year and the allegation against the organizers pertains to the current year. Moreover, it does not strengthen G's allegation in any way.

auradediligodo · Answer

G:  The group of works exhibited in this year’s Metropolitan Art Show reveals a bias in favor of photographers. Equal numbers of photographers, sculptors, and painters submitted works that met the traditional criteria for the show, yet more photographs were exhibited than either sculptures or paintings. As you know, each artist was allowed to submit work in one medium only.

H:  How could there have been bias? All submitted works that met the traditional criteria—and only those works—were exhibited in the show.

Which one of the following, if true, most strongly supports G’s allegation of bias?

Strengthen question

Pre-thinking

So   What if there was some other reason or factor that led to this scenario? What if the quality standards were met but some paintings or sculptures were too obscene to be shown?

Clearly a statement like the one above would strengthen G's argument.

POE:

(A) If an artist has had one of his or her works exhibited in the Metropolitan Art Show, that artist has an advantage in getting commissions and selling works over artists who have never had a work exhibited in the show.
 Irrelevant

(B)   The fee for entering photographs in the Metropolitan Art Show was $25 per work submitted, while the fee for each painting or sculpture submitted was $75.
 This statement opens up the possibility that some artists who made a sculpture or a painting were not okay with the price and did not accept to show their art in the museum

(C) The committee that selected from the submitted works the ones to be exhibited in this year’s Metropolitan Art Show had four members: one photographer, one sculptor, one painter, and one who works in all three media but is the least known of the four members.
 Irrelevant

(D) Reviews of this year’s Metropolitan Art Show that appeared in major newspapers and magazines tended to give more coverage to the photographs in the show than to the sculptures and paintings that were exhibited.
 Irrelevant

(E) In previous years, it has often happened that more paintings or more sculptures were exhibited in the Metropolitan Art Show than photographs, even though the total number of works exhibited each year does not vary widely.
 Irrelevant

GMATNinja · Answer

The question asks us which answer choice "most strongly supports G’s allegation of bias  ."

G believes that photographers were favored for a specific reason: "Equal numbers of photographers, sculptors, and painters submitted works that met the traditional criteria for the show, yet more photographs were exhibited than either sculptures or paintings."

However, to support G's claim of bias,  we do not necessarily need to follow the same reasoning that G used  as evidence in his/her original argument. The correct answer choice could be an entirely separate leg of support for the claim. Say, for instance, that an answer choice told us that several judges went on a rampage and smashed all of the submitted sculptures and paintings, but left the photographs alone -- that would definitely show bias in favor of photographers, even if it is unconnected from the original support for G's claim.

Similarly, (B) provides an additional leg of support for G's claim. If you stuck (B) into the passage, it would be just one more reason for G to conclude that the show has a bias in favor of photographers.

Because (B) supports G's claim of bias, it is the correct answer. For a discussion of (E), take a look at  this  post and let me know if you still have any doubts.

I hope that helps!

unraveled · Answer

G:  The group of works exhibited in this year’s Metropolitan Art Show reveals a bias in favor of photographers. Equal numbers of photographers, sculptors, and painters submitted works that met the traditional criteria for the show, yet more photographs were exhibited than either sculptures or paintings. As you know, each artist was allowed to submit work in one medium only.

H:  How could there have been bias? All submitted works that met the traditional criteria—and only those works—were exhibited in the show.

Which one of the following, if true, most strongly supports G’s allegation of bias?

(A) If an artist has had one of his or her works exhibited in the Metropolitan Art Show, that artist has an advantage in getting commissions and selling works over artists who have never had a work exhibited in the show. - WRONG. This can be something that may happen later on once the artists is well known due to exhibition of his/her art. This is not signifying any bias.

(B) The fee for entering photographs in the Metropolitan Art Show was $25 per work submitted, while the fee for each painting or sculpture submitted was $75. - CORRECT. It looks too good to be true. It does points out a bias(moneywise) in a straight forward manner. This may have eventually lead to bias in participation of artists from other two segment. Though there is still a possibility that equal participation was there but again if that's so some assumption is required.

(C) The committee that selected from the submitted works the ones to be exhibited in this year’s Metropolitan Art Show had four members: one photographer, one sculptor, one painter, and one who works in all three media but is the least known of the four members. - WRONG. Nothing is inferable about bias as such.

(D) Reviews of this year’s Metropolitan Art Show that appeared in major newspapers and magazines tended to give more coverage to the photographs in the show than to the sculptures and paintings that were exhibited. - WRONG. Bias is media coverage not exhibition.

(E) In previous years, it has often happened that more paintings or more sculptures were exhibited in the Metropolitan Art Show than photographs, even though the total number of works exhibited each year does not vary widely. - WRONG. Further assumptions are required for it stand any chance. But that is wrong to do. Bias in previous years to others does not mean it tilted this year to photography.

Answer B.

G: The group of works exhibited in this year’s Metropolitan Art Show

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G: The group of works exhibited in this year’s Metropolitan Art Show

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