World of Art and Diaghilev's Painters

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 "e;who fail to respect art as such"e;, those who either fasten wings to an old nag or harness Pegasus to the cart of "e;social ideals"e;, or reject the idea of Pegasus altogether. For that reason, we addressed ourselves to the artistic world with the slogan "e;Talents of all directions, unite!"e; And that is how in our ranks Vrubel immediately appeared alongside Levitan, Bakst alongside Serov, Somov alongside Maliavin. - Alexander Benois