I’m going to go out on a sturdy limb and say, from the outset, that I LOVE Blue Poles. It’s a terrific painting. I have great memories of a school trip to Canberra – exactly as Gough Whitlam wished for schoolkids – to see this national treasure. Tom McIlroy’s jaunty full-length debut offers readers a more contemporary look at this acquisition, now that some 50 years have passed, and the dust has settled. With the benefit of that distance, younger generations can shake their heads with alacrity at the moral panic that surrounded the purchase of this magnificent painting.

You’ll mostly know McIlroy from his shorter-form journalism, but here he demonstrates that he’s more than capable of turning his hand to complex subjects. He does a fine job distilling the essence of American Modernism and forays into Abstract art, and Abstract Expressionism for general readership.

The first half of the book contextualises Jackson Pollock’s life, and his myriad struggles: with alcoholism, mental health, and impostor syndrome to name a few, and within artist and patron circles, giving due recognition to the role of Lee Krasner. As Pollock’s wife, she supported him fully, often coaxing him from an alcoholic fug back into everyday life, managing to balance all of this with her own successful career as an artist.

The middle section is devoted to the Blue Poles artwork itself, with a good account of its history prior to arriving in Canberra, while the final section is devoted to the painting’s acquisition and the resulting flap. While Whitlam seized on the big moment he was offered when he greenlit this purchase for the nation, credit is also due to James Mollison for his brilliant raison d’être when building the collection in that first decade. The national gallery didn’t need to ape the state’s collections, which is why the holdings of 20th-century American art are so strong. This is a terrific book, a must-read for the year!