The article is devoted to the problem of contemporary studies in artistic culture and art. The current change in the methodological paradigm in social and humanitarian knowledge concerning the subject of art is considered through the example of a new monograph written by Nikolay A. Khrenov, a Russian culture expert, philosopher and scholar in the sociology of art. The book Art in a Situation of Cultural Theory Turn: Methodological Searches provides a systematic analysis of methodological transformations in the humanities. Based on extensive material, the study shows the changes in artistic culture in the social structure of the industrial and post-industrial societies. The author carries out a critical analysis of historical, sociological, aesthetic concepts of art at the stage of transition from the idea of culture to the science of culture. Constructing a system of argumentation, Khrenov asserts that the science of culture, the sub-branch of which is the sociology of culture and art, is becoming an integration center of the humanities. The article discusses the scientist’s thesis that the movement from classical art history towards sociology of art and cultural studies meets the demand for the integration of various disciplines in modern humanitarian knowledge. The positions and ideas put forward in the monograph allow us to consider the relationship between cultural reflection and art history within the general situation of updating the theoretical and methodological tools of studies in art.