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
Ars Interpres Ostriker, Dennis Nurkse, Tomas Venclova, Mariela Griffor, John Kinsella, and Gunnar Harding. In addition "Ars Interpres" published translations of international poetry, new versions of classical poems, and translations of European and Russian poets of the past such as Giacomo Leopardi, Gerrit Achterberg, and Osip Mandelstam. The journal's staff organised the "Ars Interpres" annual poetry festival. Ars Interpres Ars Interpres was an online and in-print international literary journal, originating in Stockholm. It published primarily contemporary English language poetry and English translations of modern Scandinavian and European poetry, as well as articles on poetic translation and other related materials. "Ars Interpres" also