Full Idea
The work of the great artists shows up 'art-for-art's-sake' as a flimsy frivolous doctrine.
Gist of Idea
Great art proves the absurdity of art for art's sake
Source
Iris Murdoch (The Sublime and the Good [1959], p.218)
Book Reference
Murdoch,Iris: 'Existentialists and Mystics', ed/tr. Conradi,Peter [Chatto and Windus 1997], p.218
A Reaction
She keeps referring to tragedy (as the greatest art), but it is hard to see how we learn love and morality from a great pot or a great abstract painting. Wilde makes the doctrine frivolous, but I think it contains a degree of truth. Music.