Blue Poles: A Window into the Diplomatic and Cultural History of the Whitlam Government

In September 1973, when Gough Whitlam approved the purchase of Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles for $1.3 million, he was trying to cement Australia’s status as a cosmopolitan society finally grown to international maturity without the crutch of great and powerful friends. This act of enlightened cultural bureaucracy was the perfect midwife for a nation that recognised ‘it was time’ (paraphrasing Whitlam’s 1972 campaign slogan) to renegotiate its subservient relationship with Washington. The nurturing of culture in Australian civic life through exposure to world art, and the pursuit of independent relationships with allies were flip-sides of the same coin. For Whitlam argued that only “nations with a secure and distinctive national identity” could be “forces for peace and cooperation”, able to act “with maturity and originality” on the world stage.