Ingrid Sischy sings the praises of Maurizio Cattelan and his new show in Houston’s de Menil Collection:

Viewers of Cattelan’s show should expect to be caught off guard because pieces will be placed in surprising spots throughout the museum. That’s the kind of quick-witted, well-executed “art about art” gesture that has sometimes led Cattelan to be typed as an art clown or art philosopher or art cynic. He’s all that—and more. Ironic, melancholic, and anthropological, his work doesn’t fit into some neat slot. His sculptures and other works can make one laugh (his actual Italian dealer taped to the gallery wall), gasp (another real, breathing man buried alive, his hands coming out of the earth in prayer), freak (a wax Adolf Hitler shrunk down to the size of a small boy), and even duck (a wax Pope John Paul II crushed by a meteorite).

Irony Man (Vanity Fair)