Edward Lear's parrots and Thomas Schutte's humans – the week in art

Exhibition of the week: Thomas Schutte Powerful sculpture that takes humans apart and remakes them as eerie monsters of the imagination. This century's Daumier or Messerschmidt . • Serpentine Gallery , London W2 3XA, 25 September to 18 November Other exhibitions this week Happy Birthday Edward Lear The great comic versifier and illustrator of his own works was also an acute artist of landscape and nature. • Ashmolean Museum , Oxford OX1 2PH, until 6 January 2013 Pilvi Takala Finnish artist who documents social behaviour. • Site Gallery , Sheffield S1 2BS, until 10 November Gerard Quenum West African artist of the recycled and redeemed. • October Gallery , London WC1N 3AL, until 27 October Ken Currie Meaty paintings from a tough old hand. • Flowers, London, W1S 3LZ, until 6 October Masterpiece of the week Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, about 1855, by Honoré-Victorin Daumier The world of Cervantes' 17th-century novel Don Quixote is imagined as a warped formless wasteland of the mind. The wavy lines and restless swirl of Daumier's painting anticipate Munch's Scream . Daumier was a brilliant caricaturist but also something more. Born in 1808, he lived in a corrupt and revolutionary 19th-century France that offered plenty of material for the visual satires at which he excelled. In 1832 he was put in prison for portraying King Louis-Philippe as a pear ; yet he was able to step away from the heat of contemporary caricature to paint the series of near-abstract visions of Don Quixote that includes this eerie oil sketch. Daumier captures the deep sadness beneath the surface laughter of Cervantes. Poor deluded Don Quixote is not funny and neither is this painting by one of art's great comedians. • National Gallery , London WC2N 5DN Image of the week The Milky Way seen from the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean, one of the highly commended entries in the Royal Observatory's astronomy photographer of the year competition. Photograph: Luc Perrot Five things we learned this week • What Spitalfields in London looked like 100 years ago • London fashion week highlights the age-old relationship between fashion and art • Why architects are the last people who should shape our cities • Edward Lear could paint a mean parrot • How photographer Kohei Yoshiyuki caught voyeurs in the act And finally… • September's Share your art theme is dance and movement. Throw some shapes, on a page • Post your images to the Guardian Art and Design Flickr • Check out our Tumblr • Follow us on Twitter