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OBSESSIONS. DECORATION. SALIENT FACTS. 24 Andy Warhol's Self-Portrait, 1964, at the Whitney Museum of American Art © 2018 THE ANDY WARHOL MUSEUM, PITTSBURGH, A MUSEUM OF CARNEGIE INSTITUTE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO. © THE ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS, INC. / ARS, NYC. A rtist Brian Donnelly (aka KAWS) straddles many fences: high and low, contemplative and playful, sophisticated and street-wise. His oeuvre spans the worlds of graffiti, pop art, and consumer culture with wit, irreverence, and affection for our tranquil yet often tumultuous times. His acrylic paintings and multimedia sculpture translate across continents and cultures as he appropriates from pop-culture animations (The Smurfs, SpongeBob, Peanuts) to form his artistic vocabulary and develop his own cartoon-like characters. His work is also famously accessible to non-museum audiences via his collaborations with Uniqlo, Nancy Gonzalez, Nike, and other fashion brands. This month, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth gets its own KAWS character. Following the institution's blockbuster KAWS exhibition organized by curator Andrea Karnes in 2016 ("KAWS: Where The End Starts"), the museum recently announced the commission of a monumental KAWS sculpture, Clean Slate, for its permanent collection. The massive bronze patinated sculpture will be installed early this month on the museum's north terrace. KAWS' playful works are sometimes thought of as oversized toys; in this case, Clean Slate is reminiscent of a smile-evoking massive Buddha. We now have a graffiti-like talisman to visit in Fort Worth, should we need a pick-me-up. Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 3200 Darnell St., Fort Worth, themodern.org. Billy Fong KAWS TO CELEBRATE THE APOTHEOSIS OF ANDY POP KING ENSHRINED AT THE WHITNEY I t's billed as the most impressive survey in America ever for the favorite son of Pittsburgh: the Whitney Museum of American Art's blockbuster "Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again." More than 350 works comprise this definitive look at a Pop master who was so much more than that — an ambitious retrospective that's also the most expansive exhibition ever mounted by the Whitney in its new home. Beyond his canvases of Campbell's Soup cans, big Brillo box sculptures, and portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Warhol's prowess included innovative filmmaking, paving the way for the generation of video artists to follow, and heading a media empire spun around the cult of fame and celebrity (Interview magazine). As the 20th century's greatest history painter, he recorded the stories that defined our times: plucking newsmakers from daily headlines, from the prosaic middle-class housewife who died from eating a tainted can of tuna fish to iconic events and people who impacted U.S. history, such as race riots in the South, an electric chair awaiting its next occupant, and a veiled, grieving Jackie Kennedy at JFK's funeral. Whitney deputy director/senior curator Donna De Salvo — a Warhol authority —rolls out this roaring look at Warhol, beginning in 1948 through work from the 1970s and 1980s that is being reconsidered, including final masterpieces such as Camouflage Last Supper. Screening in the Whitney theater is a side of film programming — the well-known as well as rarities. Exhibition highlights include a gallery devoted to 75 portraits, hung salon style in a grid — vibrant visages of those who define celebrity across many disciplines: Muhammad Ali, Liza Minnelli, Leo Castelli, Halston, Chris Evert, and Tina Chow, alongside the artist's mom, Julia Warhola. Another special installation arrays 40 Flower paintings against a wall plastered with Warhol's Cow Wallpaper. Though March 31, 2019; whitney.org. Catherine D. Anspon Andy Warhol's Screen Test 309, film still from Edie Sedgwick, 1965, at the Whitney Museum KAWS' Clean Slate, 2018, being fabricated