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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.

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Notes

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

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gallimaufry

[gal-uh-maw-free ]

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