Jackson POLLOCK | Blue poles

Jackson POLLOCK
 United States of America 1912 – 1956

Blue poles 1952 oil, enamel, aluminium paint, glass on canvas
OT 367
signed and dated l.l., "Jackson Pollock 52";
(originally inscribed with a "3", subsequently painted over with a "2")
212.1 (h) x 488.9 (w) cm Purchased 1973 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
NGA 1974.264 © Pollock/Krasner Foundation/ARS. Licensed by Viscopy

  • with Sidney Janis Gallery in 1952;
  • to Dr and Mrs Fred Olsen, Guilford, Connecticut, in 1955;
  • to Mr and Mrs Ben Heller, New York, in 1957;
  • from whom bought through Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York, by the Acquisitions Committee of the Australian National Gallery, August 1973
  • Jackson Pollock
    • Sidney Janis Gallery 10 Nov 1952 – 29 Nov 1952
  • Abstract Expressionists
    • Baltimore Museum of Art 03 Mar 1953 – 29 Mar 1953
  • 9 American Painters Today
    • Sidney Janis Gallery 04 Jan 1954 – 23 Jan 1954
  • The New Decade: 35 American Painters and Sculptors
    • Whitney Museum of American Art 11 May 1955 – 07 Aug 1955
  • Jackson Pollock
    • The Museum of Modern Art 19 Dec 1956 – 03 Feb 1957
  • Pollock
    • IV Bienal, San Paolo 22 Sep 1957 – 31 Dec 1957
  • Jackson Pollock: 1912-1956
    • Museo Nazionale d'Arte 01 Mar 1958 – 30 Mar 1958
    • Kunsthalle, Basel 19 Apr 1958 – 26 May 1958
    • Stedelijk Museum 06 Jun 1958 – 07 Jul 1958
    • Kunsthalle, Hamburg 19 Jul 1958 – 21 Aug 1958
    • Hochscule f³r Bildende K³nste 03 Sep 1958 – 05 Oct 1958
    • Whitechapel Art Gallery 05 Nov 1958 – 14 Dec 1958
    • MusÚe National d'Art Moderne 16 Jan 1959 – 15 Feb 1959
  • The Collection of Mr and Mrs Ben Heller
    • The Art Institute of Chicago 22 Sep 1961 – 22 Oct 1961
    • Baltimore Museum of Art 03 Dec 1961 – 31 Dec 1961
    • Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati 22 Jan 1962 – 25 Feb 1962
    • The Cleveland Museum of Art 13 Mar 1962 – 10 Apr 1962
    • California Palace of the Legion of Honor 30 Apr 1962 – 03 Jun 1962
    • Portland Art Museum 15 Jun 1962 – 22 Jul 1962
    • Los Angeles County Museum of Art 05 Sep 1962 – 14 Oct 1962
  • Jackson Pollock
    • The Museum of Modern Art 05 Apr 1967 – 04 Jun 1967
    • Los Angeles County Museum of Art 19 Jul 1967 – 03 Sep 1967
  • American Art of Mid-Century 1
    • National Gallery of Art, Washington 28 Oct 1973 – 06 Jan 1974
  • Blue Poles by Jackson Pollock
    • Art Gallery of New South Wales 08 Apr 1974 – 02 Jun 1974
    • City Hall, Brisbane 07 Jun 1974 – 02 Aug 1974
    • National Gallery of Victoria 05 Aug 1974 – 05 Oct 1974
    • Art Gallery of South Australia 07 Oct 1974 – 07 Nov 1974
  • Jackson Pollock: A Retrospective
    • The Museum of Modern Art 01 Nov 1998 – 02 Feb 1999
    • Tate 11 Mar 1999 – 06 Jun 1999
  • Jackson Pollock's Blue poles
    • National Gallery of Australia 04 Oct 2002 – 27 Jan 2003
  • Out & About: the National Gallery tours Australia - Pollock
    • National Gallery of Victoria 04 Dec 2003 – 09 Feb 2004
  • Abstract Expressionism: the National Gallery of Australia celebrates the centenaries of Jackson Pollock and Morris Louis
    • 14 Jul 2012 – 24 Feb 2013
  • James Fitzsimmons, 'Jackson Pollock', Art Digest, 15 November 1952, p. 17;
  • Robert M. Coates, 'From Ingres to Pollock, direct', New Yorker, 22 November 1952, p. 179;
  • Robert Goodnough, 'Jackson Pollock', Artnews vol. 51 no. 8, December 1952, p. 42 illus. b&w;
  • S. Lane Faison Jr, review, Nation, 13 December 1952, p. 564;
  • Belle Krasne, 'Nine American painters, nine American worlds', Art Digest vol. 28 no. 8, 15 January 1954, pp. 11–12, illus. b&w;
  • Robert Goldwater, 'Individuality and style', Design Quarterly no. 30, 1954, p. 8, illus. b&w;
  • John I.H. Baur, The new decade, New York: Macmillan 1955, p. 68, illus. b&w;
  • Robert Rosenblum, 'The new decade', Arts vol. 29 no. 8, 15 May 1955, p. 21;
  • Robert M. Coates, review, New Yorker, 29 December 1956, pp. 47–48;
  • John I.H. Baur, New art in America, Greenwich, Connecticut: New York Graphic Society 1957, p. 241, illus. col.;
  • Maurizio Calvesi, 'Genio di Pollock', 14 soli no. 2, March–April 1958, pp. 19–21;
  • M.C., review, Burlington Magazine vol. 100 no. 699, December 1958, p. 450;
  • Robert Melville, 'London: Pollock at the Whitechapel', Arts vol. 33 no. 4, January 1959, p. 16, illus. b&w;
  • Frank O'Hara, Jackson Pollock, New York: George Braziller 1959, pp. 30–31, illus. col. pl. 75, and detail frontispiece;
  • Bryan Robertson, Jackson Pollock, London: Thames and Hudson; New York: Harry N. Abrams 1960, pp. 19–38, illus. col. pl. 19, detail pl. 18, cover;
  • W.G. Archer, 'Jackson Pollock', Studio International vol. 161 no. 816, April 1961, p. 161;
  • Yoshiaki Tono, 'Jackson Pollock, or the new rite of hate–love for image', Mizue no. 672, April 1961, pp. 14–15;
  • Henry Geldzahler, 'Heller: New American-type collector', Artnews vol. 60 no. 5, September 1961, pp. 28–31, 58, p. 30 Blue poles installed in the Hellers' apartment;
  • Michael Fried, 'Some notes on Morris Louis', Arts Magazine vol. 38 no. 2, November 1963, pp. 22–26, cf. p. 22;
  • Harold Rosenberg, The anxious object: Art today and its audience, New York: Horizon Press 1964, p. 83;
  • Samuel Green, American art: A historical survey, New York: Ronald Press 1966, p. 596, illus. b&w;
  • Lloyd Goodrich, Three centuries of American art, New York: Whitney Museum of American Art 1966, pp. 120–21, illus. col.;
  • Edward B. Henning, Fifty years of modern art, Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art 1966, n.p.;
  • John Gruen, 'Jackson Pollock: A fury contained', Status and Diplomat vol. 18 no. 203, April 1967, pp. 40–41;
  • Barbara Gold, 'A reevaluation of Pollock', Baltimore Sun, 9 April 1967;
  • Bruce Glaser, 'Jackson Pollock: An interview with Lee Krasner', Arts Magazine vol. 41 no. 6, April 1967, pp. 36–39, illus. col., detail;
  • Jack Kroll, 'Painting as action: The world of Jackson Pollock', Newsweek, 17 April 1967, p. 97, illus. col.;
  • Bartlett F. Jones, 'Jackson Pollock retrospective', America, 21 September 1967, p. 329;
  • Allen S. Weller, The joys and sorrows of recent American art, Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press 1968, p. 26, illus. pl. 32;
  • Finley Eversole, review of 1967 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in Theology Today, July 1968, p. 254;
  • Italo Tomassoni, Pollock, Florence: Sadea Editore; London: Thames and Hudson 1968, pp. 74–75, illus. col.;
  • Alberto Busignani, Pollock, Florence: Sadea/Sansoni 1970; London, New York, Sydney, Toronto: Hamlyn 1971, n.p., illus. col. pl. 37;
  • 'Jackson Pollock', Praeger Encyclopedia of Art, New York: Praeger Publishers 1971,
  • p.1589, illus. col.;
  • Werner Haftmann, 'Masters of gestural abstraction', Art since mid-century, 2 vols, Greenwich, Conn.: New York Graphic Society 1971, vol. 1, pp. 13–49, p. 20 illus. col. pl. 4, with title as 'Blue posts';
  • Maurice Tuchman, The New York School, The first generation, Greenwich, Conn.: New York Graphic Society 1965, revised edition of the original Los Angeles County Museum catalogue 'The New York School', 1965; also published by Thames and Hudson, London, 1970, as The New York School: Abstract Expressionism in the 40s and 50s, p. 121, illus. pl. 88;
  • Barbara Rose, 'Quality in Louis', Artforum vol. 10 no. 2, October 1971, pp. 62–65;
  • Harry C. Rutledge, 'Classical Latin poetry: An art for our time', in Mark Morford (ed.), The endless fountain: Essays on Classical Humanism (Columbus: Ohio State University Press 1972, pp. 139–40, 159, illus. b&w;
  • B.H. Friedman, Jackson Pollock: Energy made visible, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972, pp. 201–03;
  • John Elderfield, 'Painterliness redefined: Jules Olitski and recent Abstract art: Part 2', Art International vol. 17 no. 4, April 1973, pp. 36–40, 101–02;
  • Ellen Johnson, 'Jackson Pollock and nature', Studio International vol. 185 no. 956, June 1973, pp. 257–62, illus. b&w;
  • Jane Holtz Kay, 'In a class by itself', Christian Science Monitor, 27 October 1973, illus. b&w;
  • Stanley P. Friedman, 'Loopholes in "Blue poles" ', New York Magazine, 29 October 1973, pp. 48–51, illus. col. Responses by Thomas B. Hess and Barbara Rose were published in Letters to the Editor, New York Magazine, 9 November 1973;
  • Les Levine, 'A Portrait of Sidney Janis on the occasion of his 25th anniversary as an art dealer', Arts Magazine vol. 48 no. 2, November 1973, pp. 51–54;
  • Clement Greenberg, quoted in Vogue Australia vol. 16 no. 10, December–January 1973/74, p. 109;
  • Kenneth Evett, 'Pollock; Cézanne', New Republic vol. 170 no. 3081, 26 January 1974, pp. 24–26;
  • William Rubin, 'Pollock was no accident', New York Times Magazine, 27 January 1974, pp. 35–37, 50, illus. col. Excerpts reprinted in Dialogue vol. 7 no. 2, 1974, pp. 44–56;
  • Anthony Everitt, Abstract Expressionism, London: Thames and Hudson 1975, p. 18, illus. col. pl. 10, dated 1953;
  • Frank O'Hara, Art chronicles 1954–1966, New York: George Braziller 1975, p. 26, illus. col. pl. 10, cropped on all sides;
  • John Russell, The meanings of modern art vol. 12, How good is modern art?, New York: Museum of Modern Art 1975, p. 11, illus. col.;
  • Michele Cone, The roots and routes of art in the 20th century, New York: Horizon Press 1975, cf. pp. 189, 191, illus. b&w;
  • Andrew Kagan, 'Paul Klee's influence on American painting: New York School', Arts Magazine vol. 49 no. 10, June 1975, pp. 54–59, illus. b&w;
  • Sam Hunter, La Peinture Américaine contemporaine, Paris: Editions Tête de Feuilles 1976, p. 31, illus. col. pl. V, cover detail;
  • Australian National Gallery, (pamphlet), Canberra: Australian National Gallery, c. 1977, p. 15, illus. col.;
  • Patrick McCaughy, ‘The modern period and the Australian National Gallery’, Art and Australia vol. 14 nos 3 & 4, January–April 1977, p. 274;
  • Bryan Robertson, 'Blue poles', Art and Australia vol. 14 nos 2 & 3, January–April 1977, pp. 297–301, illus. col.;
  • Francis Valentine O'Connor and Eugene Victor Thaw, Jackson Pollock: A catalogue raisonné of paintings, drawings and other works, 4 vols, New Haven and London: Yale University Press 1978, vol. 2, no. 367, pp. 193–97, illus. b&w;
  • Charles F. Stuckey, 'Another side of Jackson Pollock', Art in America vol. 65 no. 6, November–December 1977, pp. 80–91, illus. col. ;
  • Barbara Rose, 'Jackson Pollock at work: An interview with Lee Krasner', Partisan Review vol. 47 no. 1, 1980, pp. 82–92; also published in Barbara Rose (ed.), Pollock painting: Photographs by Hans Namuth, New York: Agrinde Publications 1980, n.p.;
  • Siegfried Wichmann, Japonisme: The Japanese influence on Western Art since 1858, London: Thames and Hudson 1981, pp. 404–05, illus. col.;
  • Elizabeth Frank, Jackson Pollock, New York: Abbeville Press 1983, pp. 97–99, illus. col.;
  • Stephen Polcari, 'Jackson Pollock and Thomas Hart Benton', Arts Magazine vol. 53
  • no. 7, March 1979, pp. 120–24, illus. b&w;
  • Australian National Gallery Association News, October 1982, p. 3, illus. b&w;
  • Laura Murray (ed.), Australian National Gallery, Canberra: Australian National Gallery 1982, pp. 28–29, illus. col;
  • Laura Murray and James Mollison (eds), Australian National Gallery: An introduction, Canberra: Australian National Gallery 1982, pp. 64–65, illus. col.;
  • Jackson Pollock, Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne 1982, pp. 200–01, illus. col.;
  • Sam Hunter and John Jacobus, Modern art: From Post-Impressionism to the present, New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc. 1985, p. 271, illus. col. (incorrectly as collection of Art Gallery of New South Wales);
  • Matthew L. Rohn, Visual dynamics in Jackson Pollock's abstractions, Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press 1987, pp. 52–55;
  • Ellen G. Landau, Jackson Pollock, New York: Harry N. Abrams 1989, pp. 222–23, 227–28, illus. col.;
  • David Anfam, Abstract Expressionism, London: Thames and Hudson 1990, pp. 164–65, 176, illus. col. pl. 129;
  • Helen Boxall, Art in crisis: The Blue poles controversy, Canberra: Australian National University 1989, cover illus. col.;
  • Felicity Woolf, Picture this: A first introduction to painting, London: Hodder and Stoughton 1989, pp. 32–33, illus. col. and detail;
  • ‘Jackson Pollock: An American saga’, Age Good Weekend, 7 April 1990, p. 39 illus. col.;
  • Rhana Devonport and Vaughan Rees, Art-i-facts, book one: An exploration of art and design for Junior Secondary students, Brisbane: McGraw-Hill 1991, fig. 6.26, p. 138, illus. col.;
  • An introduction to the National Gallery of Australia,Canberra: National Gallery of Australia 1992, pp. 68–69, illus. col.;
  • Australian National Gallery Association News, May­–June 1992, p. 5, illus. b&w;
  • Claude Cernuschi, Jackson Pollock: Meaning and significance, New York: Icon Editions 1992, pp. 17–20, pl. 4 illus. b&w;
  • Michael Lloyd and Michael Desmond, European and American paintings and sculpture 1870–1970 in the Australian National Gallery,Canberra: Australian National Gallery 1992, pp. 236–45, illus. col., detail cover, pp. 238–39;
  • Donald Williams and Barbara Vance Wilson, From caves to canvas: An introduction to Western art,Sydney: McGraw Hill 1992, pp. 252–53, illus. col., 2nd ed. 1998, pp. 298–99, illus. col.;
  • Bruce D. Kurtz, Contemporary art 1965–1990, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall 1992, p. 111, illus. b&w fig. 4.3;
  • Jenny Manning, Sixty minutes in the Gallery, Canberra: National Gallery of Australia 1993, p. 8, illus. b&w;
  • Lina Tesoriero and Barbara Brinton, Exploring art at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra: National Gallery of Australia 1994, schools edition, p. 26, illus. b&w;
  • Contemporary modern masters: Pollock, Tokyo: Kodansha 1994, detail pl. 57 illus. col. plate 58 illus. col.;
  • Mike Venezia, Getting to know the world’s greatest artists: Jackson Pollock, Chicago: Children’s Press 1994, pp. 26–27 illus. col.;
  • artonview no. 3, Spring 1995, cover and back cover, illus. col.;
  • Helen Grace, Aesthesia and the economy of the senses, Nepean: University of Western Sydney 1996, p. 214, b&w illus. p. 216;
  • ‘The painter as outlaw hero’, Canberra Times, 29 December 1996, p. 16 b&w illus.;
  • Phillip Monsel, Pollock, Paris: Cercle d’ Art 1997, pl. 41 illus. col. ;
  • ‘Visual chaos captures nature’s art’, Sydney Morning Herald, 24 October 1997, p. 19 illus. col.;
  • ‘Jackson Pollock’, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 26 October 1997, p. 20 illus.;
  • Into the new millennium: Corporate Plan 1999–2001, Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 1998, p. 6, illus. col.;
  • Kirk Varnedoe and Pepe Karmel, Jackson Pollock: A retrospective, New York: The Museum of Modern Art 1998,pp. 24, 65, 75, 116, illus. col. pl. 214, detail pl. 215;
  • Kirk Varnedoe and Pepe Karmel, Jackson Pollock: New approaches, New York: The Museum of Modern Art 1998, pp. 54, 134, fig. 22 illus. col.;
  • Justin Spring, The essential Jackson Pollock, New York: Harry N. Abrams 1998, pp.108–09, illus. col.;
  • Matthew Biro, Anselm Kiefer and the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, New York: Cambridge University Press 1998, p. 184, illus. b&w fig. 76;
  • Our American century, the American dream: The 50s, Alexandria, Virginia: Time Life Books 1998, pp. 134–35, illus. col.;
  • An introduction to the Collection, Canberra: National Gallery of Australia 1998, p. 52, illus. col.;
  • ‘What a difference 25 Years makes’, The Weekend Australian, 25–26 July 1998, p. 6 illus. col.;
  • ‘Blue poles: All is forgiven’, Age, 30 October 1998, p. 15 illus. b&w with James Mollison in front;
  • ‘A fractal too much friction in Blue poles’, Herald Sun,11 November 1998, p. 25, illus. b&w;
  • Robert Hughes, ‘Dappled glories’, Time 16 November 1998, pp. 84–87, illus. col.;
  • Jackson Pollock, exhibition pamphlet, New York: Museum of Modern Art 1998, illus. col.;
  • Anne Johnston, ‘Quality Street’, Australian Art Collector 6, October–December 1998, p. 108 illus.;
  • Michael Kimmelmann, ‘New York’, The New York Times: Weekend, 30 October 1998, pp. B29, B32, illus. col.;
  • Rebecca Lancashire, ‘Time smiles kindly on the matter of splatter’, Age, 29 October 1998, p. 5 illus. col.;
  • ‘Pollock: Dérapages contrôlés’, Beaux Arts no. 175, December 1998, pp. 76–83, illus. col. p.76-77;
  • Pierre Restany, ‘The great opening of 20th century painting toward its future’, Domus 809, November 1998, pp. 104–08, illus. col.;
  • Dalya Alberge, ‘Go figure, says computer of Pollock’, Australian, 19 March 1999, p. 16, illus. col.;
  • Wendy Beckett, Sister Wendy’s 1000 masterpieces, London: Dorling Kindersley 1999, p. 366 illus. col.;
  • Robert Berlind, ‘Looking at Blue poles’, Art in America, May 1999, pp. 120–21, illus. col.;
  • Thomas Crow, ‘Moving picture’, Artforum International, April 1999, pp. 90–91, illus. col.;
  • Michael Desmond, ‘Return of the native’, Art Monthly Australia no. 117, March 1999, pp. 15–17, illus. b&w;
  • Philip Hensher, ‘Blue poles’, Modern Painters, Spring 1999, pp. 35–37, illus. col.;
  • Jeffrey Kastner, ‘Pollock: 50 years on’, Art Monthly, February 1999, pp. 1–6, illus. b&w;
  • Waldemar Januszczak, ‘Jack the dripper’, Weekend Australian, 3–4 April 1999, pp. 36–49, illus. col.;
  • Jeremy Lewison, Interpreting Pollock, London: Tate Gallery Publishing 1999, pp. 6, 10, 11, 77, illus. col.;
  • Jeremy Lewison, ‘Jackson Pollock’, Tate no.17, Spring 1999, pp. 26–27, illus. col.;
  • Gough Whitlam, ‘Blue poles comes home’, transcript of the lecture given by G. Whitlam at the NGA, 21 July 1999; copy held in NGA Research Library at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
  • Michael Lloyd, Jackson Pollock, Canberra: National Gallery of Australia 1999, pp. 1–4, illus. col. and detail on cover;
  • Michael Lloyd, ‘Jackson Pollock’, artonview no. 18, Winter 1999, pp. 17–24, illus. col. and details;
  • Edward Lucie-Smith, ‘Critic’s diary’, Art Review vol. 51, April 1999, pp. 24–26, illus. col.;
  • Jeanne Siegel, ‘Materiality is the message’, Art Journal vol. 58 no. 2, Summer 1999, pp. 109–12;
  • David Sylvester, ‘The grin without the cat’, London Review of Books vol. 21 no. 7, 1 April 1999, www.lrb.co.uk accessed September 2003;
  • Helen Harrison, Such desperate joy: Imagining Jackson Pollock, New York: Thunders Mouth Press 2000, pp.160–61, b&w illus.;
  • Ted Snell, ‘Scandals and scoundrels’, Art and Australia vol. 37 no. 3, March–May 2000, pp. 398–405, illus. col.;
  • ‘After Blue poles’, artonview, no. 44, Spring 2001, pp. 44–47, illus. col.;
  • Lindsay Barrett, The prime minister’s Christmas card: Blue poles and cultural politics in the Whitlam era, Sydney: Power Publications 2001, detail on cover, illus. col.;
  • Cynthia Freeland, But is it art? An introduction to art theory, New York: Oxford University Press 2001, pp. 107, 110–11, b&w illus.;
  • Roy T. Matthews and F. De Witt Platt, The Western humanities, 4th ed., Mountain View: Mayfield Publishing Company 2001, p. 593, fig. 21.11, illus. col.;
  • Jennifer Ouellette, ‘Pollock’s fractals’, Discover vol. 11 no. 22, November 2001, pp. 68–69, illus. col.;
  • ‘The politics of art’, Canberra Times, The guide, 22 January 2001, p. 3, illus., Gough Whitlam in front;
  • Michael Pyne, Julie Bowe and Diane Connolly, One land many stories: A history of Australia in the 20th century, Sydney: Pearson’s Education Australia 2001, p. 226, fig. 6.14, illus. col.;
  • Sebastian Smee, ‘Poles apart: A painting and our identity’, Sydney Morning Herald, 25 January 2001, p. 16, illus. col., Gough Whitlam in front;
  • Helen Harrison, ‘Jackson Pollock’s studio floor: Uncovering the secrets’, IFAR Journal vol. 4 no. 4/vol. 5 no. 1, 2001/2002, p. 36, illus. col. and cover;
  • Belinda Cotton, Art for everyone … everywhere: Out and about, Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 2002, p. 7, illus. col. and p. 28, col. illus. (detail).
  • Elizabeth Sussman, Eva Hesse, San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 2002, p. 285, col. illus. fig. 115;
  • Anthony White (ed.), Jackson Pollock’s Blue poles, Canberra: National Gallery of Australia 2002, cat. 8, p. 117, illus. col. p. 2, and throughout, cover, p. 30, 31, 37 (details);
  • Sasha Grishin, ‘The rise and rise of the National Gallery of Australia’, Art and Australia, vol. 41, no. 2, 2004, p. 258, illus. col., p. 256–71;
  • Pauline Green (ed.), Building the collection, Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 2002, pp. 222, 225, illus col. p. 228;
  • Les Murray, The full dress: An encounter with the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra: National Gallery of Australia 2002, p. 61, illus. col.;
  • Anthony White, ‘Jackson Pollock—Before Blue poles’, artonview no. 31, Spring 2002, pp. 14–16;
  • Jason Gaiger (ed.), Frameworks for modern art, New Haven and London: Yale University Press 2003, p. 235, illus., col. pl. 5.23;
  • R.P. Taylor, R. Guzman, T.P. Martin, G.D.R. Hall, A.P. Micolich, C.A. Marlow ‘Authenticating Pollock paintings using fractal geometry,’ Pattern Recognition Letters vol. 28 no. 6, April 2007, pp. 695–702, http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1225187
  • Collectionhighlights, Canberra: National Gallery of Australia 2008, pp. 238–39 illus.

Blue poles was first exhibited in Pollock’s solo show at Sidney Janis Gallery in1952 where it was titled Number 11, 1952. Later christened by Pollock Blue poles, today the painting is usually referred to as such.[1] Although the date of the painting is definitely 1952, Pollock appears to have mistakenly dated it ‘53’, then changed the ‘3’ to a ‘2’.

In 1973 Stanley P. Friedman wrote an article in the New York Magazine in which he reported that he had been told by Tony Smith, that Smith and Barnett Newman had painted on the canvas that subsequently became Blue poles.[2] No-one that Friedman interviewed for his article denied the possibility that Smith or Newman contributed to the early stages of the work. What they all emphatically denied is that these initial exercises on the canvas contributed in any way to the work which Pollock then built up on the canvas to become Blue poles.Any trace of earlier involvement by Smith or Newman was covered over by the painting which Pollock subsequently made on this canvas.

The canvas is of high‑quality Belgian linen with a commercially oil‑primed ground. The earliest visible layer of paint is black, thinning at the edges to a green which appears to have been formed by the mixing of yellow and black. The first layer of paint was applied, as was customary practice for Pollock since 1947, while the canvas was stretched out on the floor. Fragments of the glass basting tubes, which were used to apply the first layers of paint to the canvas, are embedded in this layer of paint. Subsequently the unstretched canvas was tacked to a beam that ran along the wall of the studio; liquid, white paint was then applied and allowed to run down the canvas.

For the next campaign on the painting, the canvas was returned to the floor. Using his characteristic method of pouring fluid paint from above in a continuous stream onto the canvas, Pollock employed sticks, dried brushes and syringes to build up a web of rhythmic, linear accents using yellow, orange and aluminium paints. He then left the canvas alone for quite some time. When Pollock next worked on the painting, he created the blue poles with the ‘2 x 4’ length of timber that he apparently positioned to act as a straight edge for painting in the poles.[3] The poles are an unusually definite form in the ‘all‑over’ configuration of Pollock's poured paintings and various figurative connotations have been attributed to them—from totems to the swaying masts of tall ships.[4]

Pollock integrated the poles by lacing them into the composition with fine dripped skeins of white, black and blue paint. In this final operation, the artist used brushes and rags as well as poured paint. Careful adjustments were made. For example, a thin white dripped line, that might have faded at the left edge of the canvas, has been fastidiously painted over at the edge in black.

Michael Lloyd and Michael Desmond, European and American Paintings and Sculpture 1870–1970 in the Australian National Gallery,Canberra: Australian National Gallery 1992, pp. 240–45, revised Anthony White 2003

[1] Sidney Janis, correspondence with the National Gallery, 17 January 1986, NGA file 72/1198-03, f.5; Pollock himself referred to the painting as ‘Blue poles’ in a conversation with B.H. Friedman in 1955, see B.H. Friedman, Jackson Pollock: Energy made visible,New York: McGraw-Hill 1972, p. xvii.

[2]Stanley P. Friedman, ‘Loopholes in “Blue poles”’, New York Magazine,29 October 1973, pp. 48–51.

[3]Lee Krasner Pollock recalled seeing this piece of wood near the painting covered with wet blue paint, see O'Connor and Thaw, vol. 2, p. 193.

[4]In his biography of Pollock, Bryan Robertson attributes both connotations to the poles, and also suggests a cruciform and an anchor; see Bryan Robertson, Jackson Pollock, London: Thames & Hudson, New York: Harry N. Abrams 1960, pp. 23–24.

As well as the two paintings by Pollock, Totem Lesson 2 1945 and Blue poles 1952, the National Gallery of Australia holds six drawings from the 1930s and 1940s, and two sets of prints: six intaglio prints c. 1944, printed 1967, and six screenprints 1950.