Read the passage given below and then answer the questions given below the…
2024
Read the passage given below and then answer the questions given below the passage. Some words may be highlighted for your attention. Pay careful attention.
“In the future, everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes,” claimed pop artist Andy Warhol. Known as the “Prince of Pop,” Warhol was an American legend. He became obsessed with fame and famous celebrities, and he had an enormous influence on American art and culture. During his lifetime, Warhol was a painter, filmmaker, record producer, actor, and author. He was also an outlandish public figure. He socialized with everyone from street people to Hollywood celebrities to a president’s wife. Warhol’s “popular art” sparked an artistic revolution by asking the question, “What exactly is art?” Warhol also changed the idea of what it meant to be an artist. Warhol was born in 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Slovak immigrants. His talent for drawing and painting emerged in high school. Then Warhol entered the commercial art program at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. He graduated in 1949 and moved to New York City to find fame. Warhol’s first big break came in August of that year. The editor of Glamour magazine asked him to illustrate an article. His real name was Andrew Warhola. But when the Glamour article was published, the credit mistakenly read “Drawings by Andy Warhol.” So he dropped the “a,” and Warhol was born.
Warhol became a successful business illustrator. He developed a unique style of repeating ink images with slight colour changes. In 1956, he had an important exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. In the sixties, Warhol rebelled against the era’s definition of fine art. His pop art included painting pictures of common, familiar images, such as dollar bills, celebrities, brand-name products, and newspaper clippings. Some of Warhol’s famous pieces include images of Campbell’s Soup cans, Coca-Cola bottles, and portraits of celebrities, such as Marilyn Monroe and Mick Jagger. In 1962, he founded The Factory. It became a studio teeming with artists, writers, musicians, and famous celebrities. Spurning the concept that every work of art must be unique, Warhol started mass-producing his silk screens. He often had assistants taking photographs of his works and reproducing most of his paintings.
What can be said about Andy Warhol as an artist?
- A.
He was only fame-hungry.
- B.
He wanted to make some quick bucks.
- C.
He was very snobbish when it came to interacting with common people.
- D.
He wanted to popularize commercial art.
Attempted by 4 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept: In a passage-based question asking what can be concluded about a person, the correct option is the claim the passage as a whole best supports, while options directly contradicted by the text, or left with no textual support at all, are eliminated.
Application: The passage traces Warhol from a commercial-art background — the Carnegie Institute commercial art program, his career as a business illustrator — into fine art, where in the 1960s he deliberately painted ordinary commercial imagery: dollar bills, brand-name products such as Campbell's Soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles, and celebrity portraits, rebelling against the era's definition of fine art. This is a sustained effort to bring commercial-style imagery into the space of art, that is, to popularize commercial art.
“He was only fame-hungry” overstates one trait — an obsession with fame — as his entire artistic identity, ignoring his actual body of work as painter, filmmaker, producer, and author.
“He wanted to make some quick bucks” has no support in the passage; his commercial success is presented as a result of his fame, not a stated goal.
“He was very snobbish when it came to interacting with common people” is directly contradicted — the passage states he socialized with everyone from street people to Hollywood celebrities.
“He wanted to popularize commercial art” matches the passage's account of his commercial-art training, his business-illustrator career, and his deliberate use of commercial and brand imagery in his pop art.
Cross-check: Eliminating the two options the text explicitly contradicts or offers no support for leaves the commercial-art option as the only claim consistent with every detail in the passage, confirming it as the answer.