In 1960 and 1961, Warhol, who was still creating advertisements for print media, began making paintings based on small black-and-white advertisements that he found in the New York Daily News. Water Heater is one of these early paintings depicting consumer goods—televisions, refrigerators, storm windows, and water heaters—that signaled the modern conveniences and comforts of American middle-class life. The black drips and painterly brushstrokes that he incorporated in the borders are a nod to the gestural approach of the Abstract Expressionists, who still dominated the art scene in New York at the time.
Gallery label from Andy Warhol: Campbell's Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967, April 25–October 18, 2015.
