Within the framework of the history of concepts, the term “innovation” as it was understood by Ukrainian art critics and artists during the reign of socialist realism and at the same time the emergence of non-conformist Ukrainian art (1960s) is considered. It was revealed that the encouragement of innovation, so widespread in the art of socialist realism, did not mean giving the artist a creative freedom (which is a fundamental principle of art in general) but was a requirement to observe the stylistics and aesthetics of realism, to search for forms, albeit new, but filled only with socialist content. The terms “realistic innovation,” “formalism,” “tradition,” “modernism,” “artistic skill”, etc., which are related to the term “innovation,” are also considered. The harsh criticism of formalism (“formalistic tricks”) in Ukrainian art publications artificially restrained the innovative experiments of the artists