The Prime Minister's Christmas Card

An interesting book without reaching great heights. The title is a little misleading as other than a few instances Blue Poles hardly gets a mention.

Blue Poles by US Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollack was a huge part of the culture wars during the Whitlam Labor government years of 1972 to 1975. At the time the fledgling National Art Gallery paid the princely sum of 1.3m Australian Dollars. The only way that the NAG could purchase was with prime ministerial approval and Whitlam signed the cheque. The yelling began. Whitlam, always a fairly arrogant type in the face of criticism, basically called the painting a masterpiece, told his opponent's they were lowbrow reactionaries and put Blue Poles on his Prime Minister's Christmas cards the following festive season. All heady stuff in the rather boring crap that was and still is the Australian Culture and History Wars. Wars fought by intellectual bullshit artists on both sides of politics who prove that as a nation The Saints got it right when they sang about their homeland that it had ‘no problems' so ‘you don't need your brain no more' Proof of this was when Sydney Harbour bridge painter and not that funny comedian Paul Hogan got his bit of fame by trashing Blue Poles.

Typical of books such as this one learns something new. William Dobell 1943 win in the Archibald prize was an interesting read. https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/the-william-dobell-portrait-that-broke-a-friendship-and-divided-a-nation-20141016-10r84z.html

As to Blue Poles itself, I have only ever seen it once, back in 2000, and it was a look for the sake of looking by me as I was not really as heavily interested in art at the time. But I have become a fair bit more interested in art in all its forms nowadays, so I now need to head back and have a look at this controversial painting. It is now considered a superb investment and could go at auction for as high as $300 million Australian. This item states ‘at least several hundred million dollars'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-21/blue-poles-artwork-seller-discusses-australian-government-deal/7863672

Then there are those that are still unable to let go. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-07/governments-$350m-painting-should-be-sold-to-reduce-debt/7911882
James Paterson may be on to something here. The cost to the Australian public in terms of hack politician's pensions is enormous, so to sell Blue Poles (and why not all of our cultural heritage for that matter) for the right price can keep James and his fellow politician's snouts in their superannuated troughs for a few more years. As I said previously, all heady stuff in the rather boring crap that was and still is the Australian Culture and History Wars.