As an important part of modern knowledge production, the epistemological construction of Art Theory has been developing over 100 years. But as a professional and institutionalized discipline, Art Theory is still in an “unfinished” state. From the perspective of the art theory that has been constructed, it often appears as an incompatible form of confrontation and conflict, which is manifested in three aspects: the opposition of scientism and humanism; the conflict between totality and departmentality; the conflict of autonomy and heteronomy. The reason for this confrontation and conflict lies in the intellectual property of Art Theory. It is not a completely objective knowledge, but a reflective knowledge.