Art for art's sake Art for art's sake "Art for art's sake" is the usual English rendering of a French slogan from the early 19th century, "l'art pour l'art", and expresses a philosophy that the intrinsic value of art, and the only "true" art, is divorced from any didactic, moral, or utilitarian function. Such works are sometimes described as "autotelic", from the Greek "autoteles", "complete in itself", a concept that has been expanded to embrace "inner-directed" or "self-motivated" human beings. The term is sometimes used commercially. A Latin version of this phrase ("ARS GRATIA ARTIS") is used as a motto by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and appears
Artis Library library was able to stock its shelves. In 1881, librarian Gilles Janse compiled a catalogue of the Artis Bibliotheek’s collection holding 4,381 items. The Artis Bibliotheek grew to include more than 16,000 titles. From 1848 to 1995, the Zoological Society Natura Artis Magistra published the journal "Contributions to Zoology". All issues of this journal are now in the Artis Bibliotheek collection. Initially, Westerman kept many of the library’s items in his home; the collection, however, has been housed in its own building at the zoo since 1859. In 1868 the collection was moved to the building on the Plantage Middenlaan.