The power of satire and pointless lifehacks – the week in art

Renato Guttuso’s Neighbourhood Rally (1975). Photograph: Courtesy Galleria d'Arte Maggiore, Bologna

Exhibition of the week: Renato Guttuso

This anti-fascist, social-realist painter from Sicily – who also illustrated Elizabeth David’s cookery classic Italian Food – is an important and radical Italian artist, the painterly equivalent of postwar film-makers such as Rossellini and De Sica.
• Estorick Collection, London N1, from 14 January until 4 April.

Other exhibitions this week

Unseen
The first show at the Courtauld’s new drawings gallery is a chance to encounter one of the country’s finest collections of graphic art from the Renaissance to modern times.
• Courtauld Gallery, London WC2R, from 15 January until 29 March.

Adventures of the Black Square
This major show explores the history and social meanings of abstract art ever since Malevich painted that infamous Black Square in 1915.
• Whitechapel Gallery, London E1, from 15 January until 6 April.

Rembrandt

The clock is ticking if you have not yet seen this formidable exhibition.
• National Gallery, London WC2N, until 18 January.

Virginia Overton
Installations with a dramatic sense of space.
• White Cube, Mason’s Yard, London SW1Y, from 16 January until 14 March.

Masterpiece of the week

Edgar Degas’s Portrait of Elena Carafa (c1875). Photograph: Heritage Images/Getty Images

Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas – Portrait of Elena Carafa (c1875)
This arresting portrait is typical of the intense, obsessive looking that makes it so inadequate to pigeonhole Degas as an “impressionist”.
• National Gallery, London WC2N.

Image of the week

Steve Bell’s take on the murders at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Photograph: Steve Bell

What we learned this week

That cartoon satire is a more potent weapon than hate, after the Charlie Hebdo massacre

From telepresence robots to a mug that tells you what to drink, here’s the most pointless “lifehacks” ever

That London’s new Sky Garden on the rooftop of the Walkie-Talkie will have worse views the more money you pay

The rollercoaster story of East Berlin’s forgotten theme park

And what the world’s abandoned theme parks look like, with ghost trains and delapidated Ferris wheels

That a luxury property promo video was pulled after being likened to American Psycho

That the painter Sean Scully wet the bed till he was 20, went “insane” when his son died – and thinks Ai Weiwei has it easy

All about the women redefining street art

That there are now gay art tours of the Vatican

That the world’s most famous crime scene photographer Weegee also took amazing shots of movie-goers in the 40s

What two centuries of groundbreaking African American art looks like

That the British Museum is putting Michelangelo’s favourite sculpture on display in a show about the beauty of the Greek body

What Elvis impersonators look like from Memphis to Australia and beyond

Who the new director of the National Portrait Gallery will be

That the film Space Jam has inspired an artist

And finally ...

Share your art about outer space now

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Fancy going to an exclusive curator talk and private view of the controversial Allen Jones show at the Royal Academy on 19 January? Click here