The painter María Izquierdo played an important role in the development of twentieth-century Mexican art, but her work has never been well-known in the United States except among art historians. One reason for Izquierdo’s relative obscurity is the enormous popularity of some of her peers. In particular, the painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera have so captivated the interest of US audiences that Izquierdo and other Mexican artists from the period often get overlooked, despite the high quality of their work.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
Explanation
Context: The painter María Izquierdo played an important role in 20th-century Mexican art but is not well-known in the US except among art historians. A likely reason is that Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera — her contemporaries — are so popular in the US that Izquierdo and other Mexican artists from the period get overlooked despite their quality work.
Answer: A) Izquierdo's work is not as well-known in the United States as it should be because Kahlo and Rivera draw so much of the public's attention.
Why? The passage presents Izquierdo's relative obscurity and then identifies the cause: the overshadowing popularity of Kahlo and Rivera. A accurately states this cause-and-effect relationship.
Traps:
- B) "During Izquierdo's lifetime, her paintings were displayed in galleries throughout Mexico City" → about Mexican gallery presence; the text is about US obscurity
- C) "Izquierdo painted some of the same subjects that Kahlo and Rivera painted" — subject overlap isn't mentioned; the passage is about relative popularity, not subject matter
- D) "Few of Izquierdo's works are in galleries today because she produced only a small number of them" → production volume isn't mentioned as a reason for her obscurity