art for art's sake

Cultural  

1. A slogan meaning that the beauty of the fine arts is reason enough for pursuing them — that art does not have to serve purposes taken from politics, religion, economics, and so on. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Edgar Allan Poe, and Oscar Wilde argued for the doctrine of art for art's sake.

---

Discover More

Ars Gratia Artis, the motto of the film company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), is a Latin version of “art for art's sake.”

Example Sentences

“I’m still a little uncomfortable with calling myself an artist. It denotes elitism, a certain kind of individuality, as though you make art for art’s sake, for yourself, not to make a difference.”

From Washington Post • Dec. 2, 2022

Martin’s book is too complicated, too messy, too specifically entangled with the sheer impossibility of art for art’s sake under capitalism, for that kind of catalog copy to apply.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 28, 2022

That corner of Adams’s output, which began in 1987 with “Nixon in China,” has never been mere art for art’s sake.

From New York Times • Aug. 31, 2022

“To a certain extent,” she said, “it’s art for art’s sake and I’d be OK not being able to climb it and simply experience it.”

From Seattle Times • Aug. 26, 2021

They come to believe in what he believes—not in art for art’s sake, but in art as a way of fully embracing, and understanding, life.

From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove