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
Dei Gratia Regina bust of the emperor or empress included the initials "D. G.", for the Latin "Dei Gratia". . Australian coins included the phrase "Dei Gratia Rex" or "Dei Gratia Regina" in some form, including abbreviations, until 1964. With the introduction of decimal coinage in 1966, the phrase was dropped. . Under Queen Victoria Canadian coins read "Dei Gratia Regina" Canadian coins minted from 1902 until 1910 under King Edward VII read "Dei Gratia Rex Imperator" which is Latin for "By the Grace of God, King and Emperor". The "Dei Gratia" portion was removed temporarily from Canadian coinage in 1911 and led