The Paintings of Roman Bearden (1914–1988) Represent a Double Triumph.

Reading passage question

Question: The paintings of Roman Bearden (1914–1988) represent a double triumph. At the same time that Bearden’s work reflects a lifelong commitment to perfecting the innovative painting techniques he (5) pioneered, it also reveals an artist engaged in a search for ways to explore the varieties of African-American experience.

By presenting scene, character, and atmosphere using a unique layered and fragmented style that (10) combines elements of painting with elements of collage, Bearden suggested some of the ways in which commonplace subjects could be forced to undergo a metamorphosis when filtered through the techniques available to the resourceful artist. Bearden knew that (15) regardless of individual painters’ personal histories, tastes, or points of view, they must pay their craft the respect of approaching it through an acute awareness of the resources and limitations of the form to which they have dedicated their creative energies.

(20) But how did Bearden, so passionately dedicated to solving the more advanced problems of his painting technique, also succeed so well at portraying the realities of African-American life? During the Great Depression of the 1930’s, Bearden painted scenes of the (25) hardships of the period; the work was powerful, the scenes grim and brooding. Through his depiction of the unemployed in New York’s Harlem he was able to move beyond the usual “protest painting” of the period to reveal instances of individual human suffering. His (30) human figures, placed in abstract yet mysteriously familiar urban settings, managed to express the complex social reality lying beyond the borders of the canvas without compromising their integrity as elements in an artistic composition. Another important (35) element of Bearden’s compositions was his use of muted colors, such as dark blues and purples, to suggest moods of melancholy or despair. While functioning as part of the overall design, these colors also served as symbols of the psychological effects of (40) debilitating social processes.

During the same period, he also painted happier scenes—depictions of religious ceremony, musical performance, and family life—and instilled them with the same vividness that he applied to his scenes of (45) suffering. Bearden sought in his work to reveal in all its fullness a world long hidden by the clichés of sociology and rendered cloudy by the simplifications of

journalism and documentary photography. Where any number of painters have tried to project the “prose” of (50) Harlem, Bearden concentrated on releasing its poetry— its family rituals and its ceremonies of affirmation and celebration. His work insists that we truly see the African-American experience in depth, using the fresh light of his creative vision. Through an act of artistic (55) will, he created strange visual harmonies out of the mosaic of the African-American experience, and in doing so reflected the multiple rhythms, textures, and mysteries of life.

“The paintings of Roman Bearden (1914–1988) represent a double triumph.”- is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.

This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 8 comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for the purpose of testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Question 1
Which one of the following best summarizes the main idea of the passage?

(A) Bearden was unique among chroniclers of the Great Depression in that his work depicted not just human suffering but also the happier moments that other artists tended to overlook.
(B) By combining a dedication of the perfection of his craft with a desire to portray African-American life in all its complexity, Bearden was able to produce paintings of unique vision.
(C) Without sacrificing his devotion to depicting the realities of African-American life, Bearden was able to expand the number and kind of painting techniques available to the dedicated artist.
(D) Unlike other artists of the Great Depression, who were interested mainly in sociological observation, Bearden devoted himself to the perfection of his craft.
(E) While Bearden has long been celebrated for his innovative painting techniques, he is less well known but equally notable as a compassionate chronicler of the African-American experience.

Question 2
According to the passage, Bearden’s innovative painting techniques illustrate

(A) a commitment to calling attention to human suffering
(B) a desire to instruct painters about how to approach problems of form
(C) the ability of art to transform ordinary subject matter
(D) the importance of combining the abstractions of painting with the clarity of photography
(E) the need to emphasize more prosaic elements over poetic elements in a work of art

Question 3
As it is used in the passage, the phrase “protest painting” (line 28) appears to refer to painting that

(A) depicted general scenes of social hardship and group suffering
(B) portrayed solitary figures in abstract surroundings
(C) challenged the traditional techniques employed by painters
(D) emphasized the experiences of African Americans during the Great Depression
(E) used innovative techniques to suggest the effects of social circumstances on individuals

Question 4
Based on the passage, with which one of the following statements would Bearden have been most likely to agree?

(A) To better highlight the creative technical elements of a painting an artist should choose prosaic and commonplace subjects.
(B) Technical elements such as color can be effectively used to convey social or political messages.
(C) A painter’s use of technical innovations should be subservient to conveying social and political messages.
(D) A painter should focus on the positive elements of African-American life and avoid depicting suffering and injustice.
(E) The techniques of journalism and photography can bring new creative vision to painting and enrich its depiction of African-American life.

Question 5
It can be inferred from the passage that journalistic and photographic records of Depression-era Harlem generally do not

(A) involve innovative creative techniques
(B) reveal instances of individual human suffering
(C) communicate the sociological platitudes of the period
(D) depict the richness of African-American life
(E) cloud the picture of everyday life

Question 6
The passage gives information that helps answer all of the following questions EXCEPT:

(A) What led Bearden to choose painting as his primary means of artistic expression?
(B) What are some of Bearden’s most significant contributions to art?
(C) What aspects of life during the Great Depression did Bearden depict?
(D) What specific artistic techniques lent power to Bearden’s paintings of individual subjects?
(E) What did Bearden intent to convey through his use of color?

Question 7
According to the passage, human figures in Bearden’s paintings do all of the following EXCEPT:

(A) serve as particular examples of human hardship
(B) suggest circumstances outside the explicit subject of the paintings
(C) function as aspects of an artistic composition
(D) symbolize emotions or psychological stages
(E) inhabit abstract but recognizable physical settings

Question 8
The passage suggests that the author’s attitude toward Bearden’s innovative painting techniques is one of

(A) admiration for how they aided Bearden in communicating his rich vision of African-American life
(B) appreciation for how they transform complex social realities into simple and direct social critiques
(C) respect for how they are rooted in the rhythms and textures of the African-American experience
(D) concern that they draw attention away from Bearden’s social and political message
(E) strong conviction that they should be more widely utilized by African-American artists

Suggested GMAT Reading Comprehension Samples

• The Black Death, a Severe Epidemic that Ravaged Fourteenth Century Europe
• The United States Government has a Long-Standing Policy of Using Federal Funds to Keep Small Business Viable.
• Comparable Worth, as a Standard Applied to Eliminate Inequities in Pay
• Some Historians Contend that Conditions in the United States During the Second World War
• More Selective than Most Chemical Pesticides in that they Ordinarily Destroy only Unwanted Species
• Historians have Identified Two Dominant Currents in the Russian Women's Movement of the Late Tsarist Period.
• Citing the Fact that the Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita was Higher in 1997
• The General Density Dependence Model can be Applied to Explain the Founding of Specialist Firms
• In the 1980's, Astronomer Bohdan Paczynski Proposed a Way of Determining Whether the Enormous Dark Halo Constituting the Outermost Part of the Milky Way Galaxy
• The United States Hospital Industry is an Unusual Market in that Nonprofit and For-Profit Producers Exist Simultaneously.
• Although the Industrial Union Organizations that Emerged Under the Banner of the Congress of Industrial Organizations
• According to P. F. Drucker, The Management Philosophy Known as Total Quality Management
• The Professionalization of the Study of History in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century
• Conventional Wisdom has it that Large Deficits in the United States Budget Cause Interest Rates to Rise.
• In a New Book About the Antiparty Feeling of the Early Political Leaders of the United States
• The System of Patent-Granting, Which Confers Temporary Monopolies for the Exploitation of New Technologies
• Traditional Social Science Models of Class Groups in the United States are Based on Economic Status
• Solar Ponds are Bodies of Water in Which Circulation is Incomplete and There is a Very High Salt Concentration that Increases with Depth
• Ethnohistoric Documents from Sixteenth-Century Mexico Suggesting that Weaving and Cooking were the Most Common Productive Activities for Aztec Women
• A Recent Study has Provided Clues to Predator-Prey Dynamics in the Late Pleistocene Era.