The purpose of this work is to substantiate the author's concept of artistic and theoretical conservatism. The term "conservatism" is used in this book in the meaning close to the term "postmodernism," denoting the very style of modern thinking, but it would be a mistake to call these terms synonyms. Conservatism is nothing more than one possible interpretation of postmodernism. Conservatism is connected not only with the intellectual history of recent times: it personifies the most important trend in Western theoretical thought of the 19th-20th centuries. Postmodern theory of art is investigated from the point of view of this concept, which was based on the ideas of T. Adorno, J. Habermas, K. Manheim, B. Grois.