Editing Culture of Canada (section)

===Visual arts===
{{Main|Canadian art}}
[[File:The Jack Pine, by Tom Thomson.jpg|thumb|180px|[[Tom Thomson]], ''[[The Jack Pine]]'', Winter 1916–17. [[National Gallery of Canada]], [[Ottawa]].]]
Indigenous artists were producing art in the territory that is now called Canada for thousands of years prior to the arrival of European settler colonists and the eventual establishment of Canada as a nation state.<ref name="Phillips2011">{{cite book|first=Ruth B.|last=Phillips|title=Museum Pieces: Toward the Indigenization of Canadian Museums|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NvCphIkc_cMC&pg=PA267|year=2011|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |isbn=978-0-7735-3905-1|page=267}}</ref> Like the peoples that produced them, [[Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous art traditions]] spanned territories that extended across the current national boundaries between Canada and the United States.<ref name="FriesenFriesen2006">{{cite book|first1=John W.|last1=Friesen|first2=Virginia Agnes Lyons|last2=Friesen|title=Canadian Aboriginal Art and Spirituality: A Vital Link |year=2006|publisher=Detselig Enterprises |location=Calgary, AB |pages=xxi – Intro |isbn=9781550593044 |oclc=62129850}}</ref> The majority of indigenous artworks preserved in museum collections date from the period after European contact and show evidence of the creative adoption and adaptation of European trade goods such as metal and glass beads.<ref name="Harper1977">{{cite book|author=J. Russell Harper|title=Painting in Canada: a history|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bxss7eeWAeYC&pg=PA57|year= 1977|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-6307-6|page=57}}</ref> Canadian sculpture has been enriched by the walrus ivory, muskox horn and caribou antler and soapstone carvings by the [[Inuit art]]ists.<ref name="Förg1999">{{cite book|first=Nicola|last=Förg|title=Canada: Pacific coast, the Rockies, Prairie Provinces, and the Territories|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o4rALXEjXcAC&pg=PA233|year= 1999|publisher=Hunter Publishing, Inc|isbn=978-3-88618-368-5|page=233}}</ref> These carvings show objects and activities from the daily life, myths and legends of the Inuit.<ref name="Leigh2010">{{cite book|author=Patricia Randolph Leigh|title=International Exploration of Technology Equity and the Digital Divide: Critical, Historical and Social Perspectives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d8LynUs6KDAC&pg=PA93|year= 2010|publisher=Idea Group Inc (IGI)|isbn=978-1-61520-793-0|page=93}}</ref> Inuit art since the 1950s has been the traditional gift given to foreign dignitaries by the Canadian government.<ref name="Stern2010">{{cite book|first=Pamela R.|last=Stern|title=Daily life of the Inuit|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0y95_2m0pGUC&pg=PA151|year= 2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-36311-5|page=151}}</ref>

The works of most early Canadian painters followed European trends.<ref name="Dalal2011">{{cite book|first=Roshen|last=Dalal|title=The Illustrated Timeline of the History of the World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RO4kS1IR71sC&pg=PA147|year= 2011|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-4488-4797-6|page=147}}</ref> During the mid-19th century, [[Cornelius Krieghoff]], a Dutch-born artist in Quebec, painted scenes of the life of the ''[[habitants]]'' (French-Canadian farmers). At about the same time, the Canadian artist [[Paul Kane]] painted pictures of indigenous life in western Canada. A group of landscape painters called the [[Group of Seven (artists)|Group of Seven]] developed the first distinctly Canadian style of painting, inspired by the works of the legendary landscape painter Tom Thomson.<ref name="Jessup2001">{{cite book|first=Lynda|last=Jessup|title=Antimodernism and artistic experience: policing the boundaries of modernity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=81bt2ujVwnwC&pg=PA146|year=2001|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-8354-8|page=146}}</ref> All these artists painted large, brilliantly coloured scenes of the Canadian wilderness.

Since the 1930s, Canadian painters have developed a wide range of highly individual styles. [[Emily Carr]] became famous for her paintings of [[totem pole]]s in British Columbia.<ref name="MacDonald2009">{{cite book|first=Cheryl|last=MacDonald|title=Celebrated Pets: Endearing Tales of Companionship and Loyalty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zG9ioqNnu3cC&pg=PA57|year= 2009|publisher=Heritage House Publishing Co|isbn=978-1-894974-81-3|pages=57–}}</ref> Other noted painters have included the landscape artist [[David Milne (artist)|David Milne]], the [[painter]]s [[Jean-Paul Riopelle]], [[Harold Town]] and [[Charles Carson (painter)|Charles Carson]] and multi-media artist [[Michael Snow]]. The abstract art group [[Painters Eleven]], particularly the artists [[William Ronald]] and [[Jack Bush]], also had an important impact on modern art in Canada.<ref name="Nowell2011">{{cite book|first=Iris|last=Nowell|title=Painters Eleven: The Wild Ones of Canadian Art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rgvrHdQ_iXEC&pg=PP33|year= 2011|publisher=Douglas & McIntyre|isbn=978-1-55365-590-9|page=33}}</ref> Government support has played a vital role in their development enabling visual exposure through publications and periodicals featuring Canadian art, as has the establishment of numerous art schools and colleges across the country.<ref name="Corse1997">{{cite book|first=Sarah M.|last=Corse|title=Nationalism and literature: the politics of culture in Canada and the United States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YH0Ru6Al66sC&pg=PA60|year=1997|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-57912-4|page=60}}</ref>