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The history of Indigenous art in Canada begins sometime during the last Ice Age between 80,000 and 12,000 years ago. To date, however, the oldest surviving artworks (excluding finely crafted, aesthetically significant stone tools) are datable to no earlier than 5,000 years ago.

The colonization of eastern Canada began with the French in the 17th century. For some years, these settlers depended for clothing on what they brought with them.

The history of visual artists' groups in Canada is filled with short-lived societies which have had a major influence on both professional and amateur artists.

Parallels and Contrasts in the Visual Arts and Music: A comparative study of the development of the two sister arts in Canada had not been published, although Maria Tippett's Making Culture (Toronto 1990) reviews broad trends in anglophone Canada from the late 19th to the mid-20th century.

Yukon Arts Council. Organization founded as an independent society under the Yukon Societies Ordinance in October 1971. Prior to that time, some of its musical responsibilities were carried out by the Whitehorse Concert Association, active from the late 1950s to 1970.

Canadian Prime Ministers as Seen by Their Loyal Cartoonists

​The Beaver Hall Group (also known as the Beaver Hall Hill Group) was a group of artists (both male and female) who shared studio space at 305 Beaver Hall Hill in Montréal and exhibited together; A.Y. Jackson was the first president.

​The Art Association of Montreal, the forerunner of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, was founded in 1860.

The decorative arts, it is commonly assumed, have two features that are at odds with what we think of as fine art: decorative art is typically associated with function and its purpose is to project a style or mood rather than to transmit meaning and incite dialogue.

Since the First World War, there have been four major initiatives to allow Canadian artists to document Canadian Armed Forcesat war. Canada’s first official war art program, the Canadian War Memorials Fund (1916–19), was one of the first government-sponsored programs of its kind. It was followed by the Canadian War Art Program (1943–46) during the Second World War. The Canadian Armed Forces Civilian Artists Program (1968–95) and the Canadian Forces Artists Program (2001–present) were established to send civilian artists to combat and peacekeepingzones. Notable Canadian war artists have included A.Y. Jackson, F.H. Varley, Lawren Harris, Alex Colville and Molly Lamb Bobak.

Canadian painting in the 19th century tended towards the pastoral. It depicted idyllic scenes of rural life and represented the country as a wondrous Eden. Canadian painter Homer Watson, under the influence of such American masters as Frederic Edwin Church and Albert Bierstadt, created images that are serene and suffused with golden light. In On the Mohawk River (1878), for instance, a lazy river ambles between tall, overhanging trees; in the background is a light-struck mountain. In Watson’s world, nature is peaceful, unthreatening and perhaps even sacred.

By the 1920s comics were an established popular art form in North America. With the advent of the Depression, however, significant changes occurred as publishers responded to the public's growing appetite for escapist entertainment.