The World of Art and Diaghilev's painters

<p>When almost twenty years ago we founded the World of Art we had a burning desire to liberate Russian artistic activity from the tutelage of literature to instil in the society around us a love of the very essence of art and that was the aim we had when we took the field. We considered enemies all those who fail to respect art as such those who either fasten wings to an old nag or harness Pegasus to the cart of social ideals or reject the idea of Pegasus altogether. For that reason we addressed ourselves to the artistic world with the slogan Talents of all directions unite! And that is how in our ranks Vrubel immediately appeared alongside Levitan Bakst alongside Serov Somov alongside Maliavin. - Alexander Benois</p>