The Armenians became active in literature and many art forms at a very early point in their civilization. The beginning of truly national art is usually fixed at the onset of the Christian era. The three great artistic times coincided with times of freedom or semi-freedom: from the fifth to the seventh century; the Bagratid golden age of the 9th and 10th centuries; and the era of the kingdom of Lesser Armenia in the 12th to 14th centuries.

Of particularly high quality in the earlier times were work in gold and bronze, as well as temples, and military fortifications. In the early Christian era, classical church architecture was adapted in a series of cathedrals. The circular domes typical of Armenian churches were copied in Western Europe and in Ottoman Turkey. The best example of the typical architectural sculpture used to adorn such churches is the early tenth-century Church of the Holy Cross on an island in Lake Van.

The nineteenth century saw a blooming of Armenian painting. Artists from that time, such as the portrait painter Hacop Hovnatanian and the seascape artist Ivan Aivazovsky, continue to enjoy international reputations. famous figures of the twentieth century have included the unorthodox Alexander Bazhbeuk-Melikian, who lived a persecuted existence in Tbilisi, and the émigré surrealist Arshile Gorky, who greatly determined a generation of young American artists in New York.