Art historian: Successful forgeries tend to be those most recently

Question

Art historian: Successful forgeries tend to be those most recently painted. While such a phenomenon may sound counterintuitive, a forger is able to exploit current modes of aesthetics to create paintings that appeal to the eye of his or her contemporaries. This very quality, however, is what makes those paintings seem amateurish to subsequent generations. As a result, a majority of forgeries is identified as such roughly twenty-five years after their creation.

Which of the following is an assumption upon which the argument rests?

(A) A generation consists of exactly twenty-five years.

(B) Computer analysis, which does not rely on current aesthetic trends, can often determine with a high degree of accuracy the legitimacy of a painting.

(C) What is deemed aesthetically pleasing does not change in the course of twenty-five years.

(D) A piece of art determined to be a forgery does not, after a period of twenty-five years, become valued for its own intrinsic merits.

(E) Those who expose the majority of paintings as forgeries are guided by aesthetic considerations.

samusa · Accepted Answer

Conclusion- As a result , a majority of forgeries is identified as such roughly twenty-five years after their creation.

Basically the argument's conclusion states that the paintings seem amateurish to subsequent generations and hence ,majority of these paintings are easily identifiable as forgeries.

A) A generation consists of exactly twenty-five years.
The argument states that the paintings seem amateurish to subsequent generations and it does not matter whether a generation last 25 years or more.

B) Computer analysis, which does not rely on current aesthetic trends, can often determine with a high degree of accuracy the legitimacy of a painting.

Out of scope. There may be other ways to determine whether a painting is amateurish. Besides, the aesthetic 'part' is what is being discussed and any other quality being discussed is out of scope.

C) What is deemed aesthetically pleasing does not change in the course of twenty-five years.

Looks good! But is not correct. What is deemed aesthetic may change and hence the painting may seem even more amateurish. When we negate this option, it does not weaken the conclusion.

D)  A piece of art determined to be a forgery  does not, after a period of twenty-five years, become valued for its own intrinsic merits.

As long as the painting is determined to be a forgery who cares.

E) Those who expose the majority of paintings as forgeries are guided by aesthetic considerations.

This is exactly what is unstated. The paintings seem amateurish to subsequent generations because they seem unaesthetic or amateurish to those who expose paintings as forgeries.

If this option is NOT TRUE then , then the conclusion is weakened.

You can also think this as CAUSE AND EFFECT.( Use of the words -As a Result - is made in the conclusion...)

Cause- Paintings seem amateurish 
Effect- Makes forgeries identifiable.

E states the Cause and Effect.

If majority of paintings can not be identified using aesthetics then it means that there is some other quality or method used to identify the forgeries.

OptimusPrepJanielle · Answer

Art historian: Successful forgeries tend to be those most recently painted. While such a phenomenon may sound counterintuitive, a forger is able to exploit current modes of aesthetics to create paintings that appeal to the eye of his or her contemporaries. This very quality, however, is what makes those paintings seem amateurish to subsequent generations. As a result, a majority of forgeries is identified as such roughly twenty-five years after their creation.

The conclusion is that most forgeries are detected years after their creation. This occurs because they go unidentified during the time they're created due to an aesthetic technique of the forger that matches the current tastes of the buyers (of that generation).

Which of the following is an assumption upon which the argument rests?

A) A generation consists of exactly twenty-five years.  The argument isn't dependent on the definition of a generation. 
B) Computer analysis, which does not rely on current aesthetic trends, can often determine with a high degree of accuracy the legitimacy of a painting. Computer analysis is out of scope. 
C) What is deemed aesthetically pleasing does not change in the course of twenty-five years.  The forger adapts his or her aesthetic technique precisely because it changes. 
D) A piece of art determined to be a forgery does not, after a period of twenty-five years, become valued for its own intrinsic merits. The reason for the value of an art piece is not relevant. 
 E)  Those who expose the majority of paintings as forgeries are guided by aesthetic considerations.
 Without this assumption the aesthetic technique mentioned isn't relevant to identification of forgeries.

aniteshgmat1101 · Answer

Conclusion: "a majority" of forgeries is identified as such "roughly" twenty-five years after their creation.
Premise: Paintings by forgers appeal to the eye of contemporaries, but not to the eyes subsequent generation.
I got stuck between D and E. 
Option D is wrong. If we see the conclusion it is saying that " a majority  of art is identified....". So, there may be a few art pieces which are not identified as forgery. And if those few paintings could not be identified as forgery, then that means they are valued as an art because of their other merits. Option D states the opposite assumption.
Finally, option E - CORRECT.

Mahmud6 · Answer

Sorry, I may be layman in asking this question.

Who expose the majority of paintings  as  forgeries? Is it the person who makes forgeries or the person who identifies forgeries?

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear Mahmud6 I'm happy to respond. :-)

My friend, I am going to start by recommending this blog article: GMAT Critical Reasoning and Outside Knowledge The logic of real business world has everything to do with GMAT CR arguments. The better you understand that logic, the better prepared you are for both the GMAT CR and for business school. The GMAT CR is based on this real world business logic precisely because it's so important to have a sense of that logic well before you apply to B-school. Think about it. Why do people forge paintings? Of course, this is an illegal activity, and people do it because they are trying to gain money from their illegal action. The forger is a kind of criminal who has make money from his crime. Why on earth would this criminal expose his own crime and put himself at risk? As soon as it becomes clear that the person who sold this one painting sold a forgery, everything else that one person sold falls under suspicion, and if a number of these start to be exposed as forgeries, chances are very good that there would be financial and legal action against that person. If, on the other hand, I am a scholar of art, and I identify a forgery, I would have every reason in the world to make this discovery public. As soon as I discover that a crime has been committed, I would be motivated to alert authorities, so that justice could be served. Does all this make sense? Mike :-)

chesstitans · Answer

hello, I need help. 
I do not understand the word "the course of sth" in C, since i am an international student.

Also, I thought an assumption makes the conclusion,not the premise, hold true. How can E be the answer? 
Here is my thought: perhaps, the main idea of the argument is that people use the aesthetic technique to find the forgeries; then, E should be the answer.
Thanks.

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear chesstitans , I'm happy to respond.

My friend, this is exactly the sort of information you would learn if you were to develop a rigorous habit of reading, as I know I have recommended to you before. How to Improve Your GMAT Verbal Score Like many of the English words from the more Germanic, Anglo-Saxon side of the language, the word " course " has a multiplicity of meanings. One is the path traced by flowing water--for example, the course of a stream or a river. It is also used metaphorically for any kind of flow--for example, an academic course could be conceived as a metaphorical "river" of information that pours toward the students. We speak of the " course of events " when we are referring to time as a metaphorical flow. For example, the US Declaration of Independence has the famous beginning: " When in the Course of human events , . . ." (BTW, the first two paragraphs of that document are excellent reading practice for non-native speakers.) Similarly, we can discuss the flow of time in much more specific periods-- during the course of the last two months during the course of her employment at Company X during the course of Johann Sebastian Bach 's life during the course of the Pleistocene That is the sense being used here. Does this make sense? Mike

aragonn · Answer

Official Explanation 
Premise #1 – Convincing forgeries tend to be painted in the last 25 years.

Premise #2 – A forger uses current aesthetic modes, or paints things in a way that is nice looking based on current standards.

Conclusion: Forgeries are identified as such roughly 25 years later since what is considered aesthetically pleasing shifts.

(A) If we negate (A), we get that a generation does not consist of exactly 25 years. Fine. Let’s say it consists of 26 years or 27 years. The argument still holds. Remember, the prompt only says “roughly every 25 years”.

(B) is tempting, but it doesn’t say anything about computers identifying the majority of forgeries. Computers are simply another option, not the one that has necessarily been the most commonly employed.

(C) is easy to negate since all we have to do is great rid of the “not”. In doing so, we have an answer choice that is consistent with the argument. Indeed, the argument says that what is aesthetically pleasing does change in the course of twenty-five years. Remember: the correct answer, when negated, will result in an answer choice that, if true, will make the conclusion totally fall apart.

(D) is saying that people might value forgeries for their own good. There is no mention about the use of aesthetic standards to identify forgeries.

(E) Negating (E), we get that those who expose the majority of forgeries are NOT guided by aesthetic considerations. The whole conclusion, however, is based on the fact that the majority of forgeries ARE identified via aesthetic considerations. Therefore (E) is correct.

pratishtha1210 · Answer

Art historian: Successful forgeries tend to be those most recently painted. While such a phenomenon may sound counterintuitive, a forger is able to exploit current modes of aesthetics to create paintings that appeal to the eye of his or her contemporaries. This very quality, however, is what makes those paintings seem amateurish to subsequent generations. As a result, a majority of forgeries is identified as such roughly twenty-five years after their creation.

Which of the following is an assumption upon which the argument rests?

A) A generation consists of exactly twenty-five years.
B) Computer analysis, which does not rely on current aesthetic trends, can often determine with a high degree of accuracy the legitimacy of a painting.
C) What is deemed aesthetically pleasing does not change in the course of twenty-five years.
D) A piece of art determined to be a forgery does not, after a period of twenty-five years, become valued for its own intrinsic merits.
E) Those who expose the majority of paintings as forgeries are guided by aesthetic considerations.

hi  mikemcgarry   EducationAisle

Can you please explain why C is wrong and E is right?
I read all the threads and could not get in detail explanation for that

I marked C because I thought if we negate it 
what is deemed aesthetically pleasing does change in the course of twenty years
then if it does change then we will not be able to determine forgery because aesthetically pleasing was the reason at that time that appealed to the eye

Whereas E says on negation Those who expose the majority of paintings as forgeries are not guided by aesthetic considerations.
I am not able to get a hang of it that how it is a assumption or what it means exactly

EducationAisle · Answer

For one thing, I don't particularly like the word "pleasing" in option C, because the argument does not mention this word at all; the argument just mentions "modes of aesthetics".

Believe this is where the confusion is. The conclusion is: "a majority of forgeries is identified as such roughly twenty-five years after their creation".

The assumption is that our aesthetic sensibilities  do  change in the course of twenty-five years. Because if our aesthetic sensibilities do  not  change in the course of twenty-five years, then paintings that appealed to the eye 25 years back, would continue to appeal to the eyes even now. Hence, in that case, forgeries would not be identified twenty-five years after their creation..

VerbalBot · Answer

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Art historian: Successful forgeries tend to be those most recently

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