"Rilke's insistent quest for a purity associated with primitive origins
took a Russian turning, but could also be seen as an extension of
traditions developed in Europe in the modern era. When Balzac
takes a metaphysical look at modern life, he exclaims: 'There is a
primitive principle! . . . .' "
— The late Dore Ashton,
"Art Critic Who Embraced and Inhabited Modernism"
Putting aside the wild inaccuracy of Ashton's remarks,
the words "modernism" and "turning" suggest a review of …
