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Information and Ideas / Inferences Difficulty: Hard

“Gestures” in painting are typically thought of as bold, expressive brushstrokes. In the 1970s, American painter Jack Whitten built a 12-foot (3.7-meter) tool he named the “developer” to apply paint to an entire canvas in one motion, resulting in his series of “slab” paintings from that decade. Whitten described this process as making an entire painting in “one gesture,” signaling a clear departure from the prevalence of gestures in his work from the 1960s. Some art historians claim this shift represents “removing gesture” from the process. Therefore, regardless of whether using the developer constitutes a gesture, both Whitten and these art historians likely agree that blank

Which choice most logically completes the text?

any tool that a painter uses to create an artwork is capable of creating gestures.

Whitten’s work from the 1960s exhibits many more gestures than his work from the 1970s does.

Whitten became less interested in exploring the role of gesture in his work as his career progressed.

Whitten’s work from the 1960s is much more realistic than his work from the 1970s is.

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Explanation

Choice B is the best answer. Whitten thinks the tool made “one gesture” paintings, while historians think the tool “removed gesture” from the process completely. But putting that debate aside, both Whitten and the historians would agree that the paintings he made with the tool in the ’70s have way fewer gestures than his paintings from the ’60s, in which gestures are “prevalent,” meaning widely and extensively present.

Choice A is incorrect. This inference isn’t supported. The text only discusses the “developer”—it never mentions other tools. Choice C is incorrect. This inference isn’t supported. If anything, the text suggests the opposite: that Whitten became more interested in exploring the role of gesture in his work as his career progressed, as his earlier paintings had many gestures, and his ’70s paintings only had “one gesture.” Choice D is incorrect. This inference isn’t supported. The text never discusses the “realism” of Whitten’s art.