Intensive development of knowledge in the 20th century,including the emergence of new sciences and humanities, constantly creates aproblematic situation in the sphere of art, shifting art’s designation to what inthe philosophy of science is known as “normal science”. This is associated withthe idea of art as a science that has reached a stage of maturity and consistencyand, therefore, complies with its norms. The concept of art as “normal science”is characterized by a certain degree of conservatism, as it presupposes art’s self-protection against deviations from the established methodology.However, sometimes the artistic processes of modernity require differentapproaches. In addition, the emergence of new humanities shifts the alreadyestablished methodology of art. This happened in the first decades of the20th century, in the era of a linguistic turn in the humanities, indicating theinvasion of natural sciences in the humanities; and this is happening today, atthe turn of the 21st century, in a situation of a cultural turn, the emergenceand intensive development of the science of culture. The current turn requiresa deeper understanding of the structure and components of art history, i.e., itssub-disciplines: art history, art theory and art criticism.The essay argues that in the situation of cultural turn the theory of art cancarry out functions which the other two sub-disciplines cannot. It propoundsthat art theory is able to make a decisive contribution to the elucidation of twoproblems: the relationship between art and cultural studies and the problemof historical time, which is important both for contemporary art and for arthistory.