art for art's sake
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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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It may wink at the industry’s unseen heroes, but who can afford to make art for art’s sake in the entertainment industry anymore?
From Los Angeles Times • May 20, 2026
The doctrine of art for art’s sake is for decadent aesthetes, oozing privilege.
From Washington Post • Aug. 25, 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
If there’s a line between art as activism and art for art’s sake, he’s walked it like a tightrope.
From New York Times • Mar. 25, 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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
