Laura Cumming: best art of 2016

Portraits woke up, the tiny Goldfinch flew in, the Switch House switched on, and junk art triumphed

• Observer critics’ reviews of the year in full

Edinburgh art festival 2016 review – where Lothian meets utopian

Christian Boltanski, Damián Ortega and Alice Neel impress in this year’s strongly international show, while Inverleith House celebrates in style

Glasgow International review – irrepressible vitality everywhere

Glasgow itself is the focus of its 2016 festival of contemporary art, with 220 artists from around the world jostling for space – and plywood – and everything from the Panama Papers to velvet lobsters

Laura Cumming: the best art of 2015

It was a wonderful year, as Goya’s extraordinary portraits got together, Ai Weiwei broke free and Eric Ravilious took us to the skies

Observer critics’ reviews of the year in full

56th Venice Biennale review – more of a glum trudge than an exhilarating adventure

There’s an awful lot of fretting about the state of the world in the Biennale’s 88 national pavilions, but little power, wit or bravado