Аннотация:The article presents a review of the open lecture delivered by a composer and a theoretician of art Vladimir Ivanovich Martynov to the audience of the Faсulty of Philosophy at Lomonosov Moscow State University. The lecture was devoted to the subject-matter which the author interprets as the "disappearance of a human being" from art and that the lecturer attempted to trace with the speculative line starting from the "case of a fly" in one of Giotto's paintings, passing through Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain ready-made and coming to Andy Warhol’s Brillo Soup Box imitation of a ready-made. The composer insists that these three points of art history are peculiar points of “no return” changes in artistic creation leading from the dominating role of a human person to the dominating point of institutions. Through these points, according to Martynov, it is possible to trace how the "religion of art" - as a special pseudo-religious institution - arose and collapsed in the history of culture and civilization. In the paper the author exposes the arguments of the lecturer and offers alternative points of view on the questions discussed. The paper is a very interesting case of now-days public discussions on aesthetic affairs in Russia.
