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

From leggings to baubles, enterprises offer artists a new canvas

Businesses are finding opportunities to work with top galleries – and nurturing novel forms of creative collaboration

Damien Hirst and Picasso: coming soon to a National Gallery near you?

Gabriele Finaldi is right. The Tate shouldn’t have exclusive access to 20th-century art. It’s time to end these closed-minded historical art wars

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

Why Rio’s street artists hate the World Cup, and much more – the week in art

Brazil’s anti-World Cup graffiti, Antony Gormley’s hotel room inside a Transformer, plus Ai Weiwei sparks an internet craze of ‘leg-guns’ and Glasgow School of Art’s degree show goes ahead after the fire – all in your fave weekly dispatch