Read the following passage and answer the questions based on the passage :
Art, in its manifold forms—visual, performative, literary, and auditory—constitutes a domain that transcends utilitarian function and enters the realm of the symbolic, the affective, and the transformative. Its significance within society cannot be reduced to decoration or diversion; rather, it operates as a mode of critical reflection, a vessel of collective memory, and a catalyst for socio-cultural evolution. At its core, art interrogates the contours of reality by reframing perception. Whether through the destabilizing surrealism of a Dali canvas or the dissonant harmonies of avant-garde music, art dislodges the observer from complacency and compels re-engagement with the world. It is in this function that art becomes not only an aesthetic but an epistemological act—challenging dominant paradigms and opening discursive space for marginalized narratives. Historically, art has served as an archive of civilizations, encoding within its mediums the aspirations, anxieties, and ideologies of its epoch. From the sacred iconography of temple frescoes to the protest murals adorning urban decay, art becomes a text through which power, resistance, and identity are simultaneously contested and constituted. This historical embeddedness renders art indispensable to understanding not only what a society creates but what it values and fears. In modern democracies, the role of art assumes a distinctly political dimension. Art enables dissent when speech is suppressed, and engenders empathy where rational argument fails. Satire, documentary film, and performance art often articulate the unspeakable, using metaphor and allusion to subvert censure. Yet this potential also renders art vulnerable—to censorship, commodification, and ideological co-option. When stripped of autonomy, art may devolve into propaganda or elitist ornamentation—devoid of critical function. The sociological function of art extends to its capacity to cultivate communal belonging and individual introspection simultaneously. Participatory forms of art—street theatre, public installations, folk traditions—dissolve the binaries of creator and audience, democratizing aesthetic engagement. Meanwhile, solitary encounters with a painting or a poem can occasion personal revelation, catharsis, or ethical inquiry. However, in the algorithmic age, where virality and visibility often dictate cultural value, art faces unprecedented commodification. The aesthetic is frequently reduced to a spectacle optimized for consumption, divorced from nuance, complexity, or transgression. The challenge, therefore, is to preserve the sanctity of artistic integrity in the face of market and media pressures that threaten to flatten it into banality. Ultimately, the role of art in society is neither static nor monolithic. It is a dialectical force—at once reflective and projective, disruptive and redemptive. To safeguard art is to safeguard the capacity of humanity to feel, to question, and to reimagine.
The phrase "commodification of art" in the passage most nearly refers to:
- (a)Art being preserved in national archives.
- (b)Art being transformed into a consumer product stripped of its critical power.
- (c)Art being used exclusively for educational purposes.
- (d)Art becoming a tool for political awareness.
Answer
Why
Correct — B. The passage never prints the phrase "commodification of art". It says art "faces unprecedented commodification" and defines it in the next sentence:
"The aesthetic is frequently reduced to a spectacle optimized for consumption, divorced from nuance, complexity, or transgression."
Optimized for consumption is a consumer product. Divorced from nuance and transgression is stripped of its critical power → option (b).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)Art being preserved in national archives. — Archive appears in the passage once, in "an archive of civilizations": art as a record of its epoch. Preserving art is not selling it, and no national archive is mentioned.
- (c)Art being used exclusively for educational purposes. — Exclusively for educational purposes has no support. The passage ties commodification to consumption and to "market and media pressures", not to teaching.
- (d)Art becoming a tool for political awareness. — Reverses the relationship. Enabling dissent is the political dimension the passage values, and commodification sits beside censorship and co-option as something that leaves art vulnerable.
Concept
Commodification means turning something into a commodity, a thing made to be bought and sold. The passage uses the word twice.
First it names commodification, with censorship and ideological co-option, as a danger art is vulnerable to. Then it shows what commodification does in the algorithmic age: art becomes a spectacle "optimized for consumption".
The keyed option joins both halves: a consumer product, stripped of critical power.
The question quotes "commodification of art" as if from the passage, but that exact phrase is not printed. The passage has the word alone, in "art faces unprecedented commodification".
Key facts
- Commodification is the turning of something into a commodity, an article made to be bought and sold.
- The passage says art's political potential leaves it vulnerable to censorship, commodification and ideological co-option.
- In the algorithmic age, the passage says, virality and visibility often dictate cultural value.
Study next
Common traps
- Picking (d) because the passage praises art's political role — commodification is one of the dangers to art, not that role itself.
- Picking (a) on the word archive — it occurs in the sentence about art recording its epoch, not in the one about the market.
The same passage carries English Q.18 to Q.22.
A word's meaning is again read from its passage at 21 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.5, where immutable in "the immutable majesty of the mountains" is keyed Unchanging.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.