The Observer critics' review of 2012 – in pictures

Pop: Members of the Russian radical feminist group Pussy Riot in Red Square, Moscow, 20 January 2012. 'The two pop extremes – the piffle (Gangnam Style) and the protest (Pussy Riot) – provided two of the year's biggest musical news stories,' says Kitty Empire
Photograph: Denis Sinyakov/Reuters

TV: Ben Whishaw as Richard II in BBC2's 'exceptional Shakespeareathon' The Hollow Crown
Photograph: Nick Briggs/BBC

Theatre: Nikki Amuka-Bird and Joshua James in Caryl Churchill's Love and Information at the Royal Court, one of Susannah Clapp's standout shows of the year for its exceptional writing and direction Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Pop: Ian Brown and Mani perform on stage at Heaton Park, Manchester, 29 June 2012. The Stone Roses' reunion was one of the major live events of the year
Photograph: Gary Wolstenholme/Getty Images

Film: Ben Wheatley's Sightseers was a major exception, says Philip French, in a year where great comedy was thin on the ground
Photograph: PR handout

Photography: The Barbican's exhibition of photography from the 60s and 70s, Everything Was Moving, was Sean O'Hagan's show of the year. This shot – New York City, 1962 by Bruce Davidson – featured in Davidson's civil rights series Time of Change Photograph: Bruce Davidson/Magnum Photos

Classical: Daniel Barenboim conducts the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra at the 2012 BBC Proms. 'Planning the culmination of Barenboim's Beethoven cycle to coincide with the opening of the Olympics was smart, especially as hours later he was seen by millions as one of the bearers of the Olympic flag,' says Fiona Maddocks Photograph: BBC

Theatre: National Theatre of Wales's 'galvanic’ Coriolan/us, set in an aircraft hangar, was one of a clutch of outstanding Shakespeare productions, says Susannah Clapp, in a year that also included the National Theatre's Timon of Athens and the Donmar's all-female Julius Caesar Photograph: Mark Douet

Dance: Eve Mutso as Blanche with Erik Cavallari in Scottish Ballet's A Streetcar Named Desire. Directed and choreographed by Nancy Meckler and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, this was, writes Luke Jennings, a rare statement, given 'the near silence of women in the sphere of classical dance-making… an issue which is not going to go away' Photograph: Andrew Ross/Scottish Ballet

Photography: Cristina de Middel's self-published The Afronauts became the most sought-after photobook of the year. Using Zambia's short-lived 1960s space programme as its conceptual peg, it merges fact, fiction and myth to intriguing effect
Photograph: Cristina de Middel/The Photographer's Gallery

Film: it was a good year for provocative, entertaining documentaries, says Philip French, among them Julien Temple's London: the Modern Babylon, Bart Layton's The Imposter and (pictured) Lauren Greenfield's The Queen of Versailles, in which LA billionaire David Siegel and his former-beauty-queen wife, Jackie, confront the realities of recession
Photograph: Lauren Greenfield

Architecture: The oil tanks of the old Bankside power station of Tate Modern were transformed into an exceptional series of exhibition spaces for performance art, 'showing that good design is often about discovering what is already there', says Rowan Moore Photograph: Luke Macgregor/Reuters

TV: Once again, foreign TV showed us how best to make compulsive drama, with The Killing 3, Breaking Bad 5 and two nail-biting series of Homeland, starring Damian Lewis and Claire Danes, pictured
Photograph: Kent Smith/Showtime

Pop: The Arctic Monkeys perform during Danny Boyle's opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games which, says Kitty Empire, 'hymned a country built by mavericks, idealists, punks and ravers' Photograph: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Radio: Natasha Khan, aka Bat for Lashes, performing a session for 6 Music, which celebrated its 10-year anniversary by winning station of the year at the Sonys Photograph: BBC

Art: ‘What remains of any art year is the memory of individual works,’ writes Laura Cumming. This is one of them: The Line, 1978 by Philip Guston (from Edinburgh's Guston: Late Paintings), ‘Guston’s gigantic hand descending from the clouds to make a point – with a pencil’ Photograph: Courtesy of the Estate of Philip Guston

Theatre: Charlotte Lucas and Adrian Lester in Red Velvet at the Tricycle, where new artistic director Indhu Rubasingham 'triumphed with a drama that campaigned only obliquely', says Susannah Clapp, ‘uncovering the almost forgotten history of the African-American actor Ira Aldridge’ Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Art: ‘With his gold eyes and metal-bright curls twisting in the deep blue darkness,’ the Dancing Satyr from the Royal Academy's ‘tremendous Bronze extravaganza’ was the work of art that stood out most for Laura Cumming in 2012, ‘the shock of the new, but 2,000 years old' Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Dance: Tommy Franzén, for his work in Some Like It Hip Hop (above) and The Rodin Project, makes it into Luke Jennings's dance top 5 Photograph: PR

Architecture: The Jerwood Gallery: a gem in Hastings Photograph: Alamy