The article deals with language representation of the Soviet Union and Western countries intercultural relations in fine arts, reflected in modern Anglophone art discourse. The investigation focuses on the peculiarities used to convey in art critical discourse sociopolitical concepts, representing cognitive contexts, specific patterns of socio-cultural knowledge, as well as linguistic representation of “Self vs Other” opposition, embedded in cultural interaction in art. A comprehensive lexical, semantic, contextual, linguistic, and cognitive analysis of international art criticism made it possible to reveal that the Cold War and cultural integration are the two overarching cognitive contexts that shape the comprehension and evaluative interpretation of intercultural relations between the Soviet Union and Western countries of the 1950s-1960s. These cognitive contexts underlie the choice of language means used by an art expert to characterize intercultural relations in fine arts. The analysis demonstrates that in Anglophone art criticism these contexts provide an eventive framework. The binary “Self vs Other” opposition can be conveyed in an art history text at different levels, showing its dynamics and in some cases involving a stepwise “Other” to “Self” transformation.