Art for the Sake of Art

Art for the Sake of Art

When the notion of autonomy is deployed to argue that a text’s formal unity signals its independence from the world from which it arises, however—that is, when relative autonomy devolves into absolute autonomy—the text’s organic quality becomes equivalent to self-nourishment. It needs no sustenance from the extra-textual world; art exists for the sake of art.

from Barbara Foley