art for art's sake

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.

Notes

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