art for art's sake. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002

Reference > The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy > 8. Fine Arts

CONTENTS · INDEX · GUIDE · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002.

art for art’s sake


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.	1
‡ Ars Gratia Artis, the motto of the film company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), is a Latin version of “art for art’s sake.”	2

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

CONTENTS · INDEX · GUIDE · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Click here to shop the Bartleby Bookstore.