Night Blue

by Angela O'Keeffe

Potent, haunting and lyrical, Night Blue is a debut novel like no other, a narrative largely told in the voice of the painting Blue Poles. It is a truly original and absorbing approach to revisiting Jackson Pollock and his wife Lee Krasner as artists and people, as well as realigning our ideas around the cultural legacy of Whitlam’s purchase of Blue Poles in 1973.

It is also the story of Alyssa, and a contemporary relationship, in which Angela O’Keeffe immerses us in the essential power of art to change our personal lives and, by turns, a nation.

Moving between New York and Australia with fluid ease, Night Blue is intimate and tender, yet surprisingly dramatic. It is a glorious exploration of how art must never be undervalued.

Genres: Art, Fiction, Australia, Book Club, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Novels

144 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2021

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short work has really affected me. I'm surprised at how much it covers in only 141 pages. I'm stunned. I'll have to gather my thoughts and come back to write more. A book I want to hold close and not return to the library.
I'll need to sneak off to The Gallery and see if I can buy a copy there and sit with the novel and Blue Poles for a while to contemplate all that is there.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're about my age, you'll remember the brouhaha* over the purchase of the Jackson Pollock painting, 'Blue Poles'.  It was purchased by then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam for $1.3 million dollars, now only the price of an ordinary suburban house in Melbourne or Sydney, but back then in 1973 it was an enormous sum of money.  The National Gallery of Australia hadn't even been built, but it had a budget for collections, and Gough himself had to authorise the purchase because the cost was over the $1 million threshold.  And #understatement there was uproar...

Blue Poles (Wikipedia)

Wikipedia tells me that

The painting has become one of the most popular exhibits in the gallery, for both its value as a major work of 1950s abstract expressionism, and its significance in Australian politics and history. Estimates of the painting's present value vary widely, from $100 million to $350 million, but its increased value has at least shown it to have been a worthwhile purchase from a financial point of view.

This painting, a potent symbol of our cultural history, now has another claim to fame: it's the narrator of a strange, mesmerising novella by Sydney author Angela O'Keeffe.

The book is an amazing feat of imagination.  Consider: how can an author tell the story of a painting, narrated by that painting?  (Assuming you can conceptualise the idea of a painting having the capacity to narrate its own story anyway).  What does it know, in order to relate its story? The first conception of itself in the artist's mind?  The gradual emergence of the work from the materials used? Its exhibition, its storage, its transportation, the places where it hangs before it reaches its final destination?  Scraps of information about its owners, the people who view it, the guards and the guides who say things in its presence, or whose behaviour enables inferences to be made?

But then there's the indefinable essence of the painting, the question of what it means to the artist who created it, and the ones who trade in it; finance and buy it; think it's important for Australians to have it and those who think that Whitlam should have bought Australian art instead. 

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2021/05/14/n...

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blue Poles by Jackson Pollock was bought by the Australian government in 1973 for 1.3million dollars. It caused a bit of a scandal at the time that that much money was spent on a piece of art for the not yet built National Gallery in Canberra. Blue poles is the narrator of parts 1 and 3 of this book, yes the painting narrates its creation, its first owners and then the trip to Australia. The second part is narrated by an arts student who had worked as a conservator when Blue Poles was in storage. She sits in front of the painting for many days writing. There’s plenty of topics covered in this short book from the place of art, Australian politics, marriage, women artists, creation, memory and more. It really shouldn’t work but I couldn’t stop reading perhaps because I’ve sat in front of Blue Poles quite a few times myself and got lost in it. Not really my sort of art but there’s something about it that gets to me (not something I analyse, I just know I like to look at it) so hearing the painting talk about the smell of eucalypts and the sound of cockatoos was something I could go along with. Yes it doesn’t make sense but I loved it.

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘I was not yet colour, and time was not settled in me.’

Imagine. Imagine the voice of a painting and listen to what it has to say. In this imaginative, short debut novel, Ms O’Keeffe gives voice to ‘Blue Poles’: the painting so controversially bought by Gough Whitlam in 1973 before the National Gallery of Australia, in which it is housed, was built. I remember the purchase and at the time I wondered about it. Now, when I visit the National Gallery of Australia, I am intrigued by it.

‘The name is not important. It is the feeling that a thing engenders, not its name.'

How does Ms O’Keeffe bring the painting to life? There are three parts to this novel. Parts One and Three are the voice of the painting, Part Two is the voice of Alyssa, an assistant restorer, who is undertaking a PhD on Lee Krasner and Helen Frankenthaler (the women in Jackson Pollock’s life). The voice of the painting takes us back through its creation, through settings and process and back to Jackson Pollock and his wife Lee Krasner, and then its travels. Alyssa’s voice gives an Australian perspective of the purchase itself and the painting’s journey as well as a look at the life and times of Jackson Pollock.

An inner (logical) voice tells me that it should not work, but it does. Ms O’Keeffe goes behind what is known and imagines life where many of us see a static object. It made me think both about the significance of Blue Poles, and the story it (or any other painting) could tell if we could hear its voice.

This is a clever and engaging novel. I enjoyed it, and I am still thinking about the voices (for surely there is more than one) within and behind this (and other) paintings.

‘The story is a moth; its destiny is light.’

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Álvaro · Rating 1 out of 5]

El peor libro que he leído en años.
Lo compré por impulso, de la mesa de novedades, al ver la portada y la supuesta temática ,Pollock, y ha sido un desastre de principio a fin.

Dice la solapa que la autora cursó un Master en escritura creativa, que anteriormente ha publicado cuentos, y que ésta es su primera novela.

Y vaya si se notan cada uno de dichos aspectos...

Lleno de ocurrencias, incoherencias, capítulos que vagan perdidos por la trama...
Trata de contar la historia de un cuadro, desde el punto de vista del propio cuadro, que podría tener su aquel...pero luego resulta que el cuadro es omnisciente y sabe lo que le pasa a sus espectadores, y ve cosas del pasado, y...
Después, hacia la mitad, el punto de vista cambia al de una escritora que está investigando sobre expresionismo americano femenino, pero también quiere meter política australiana, feminismo, problemas de pareja... demasiado para un libro tan exiguo y con tan poco...talento.

Todo ello salpicado con párrafos y frases sonrojantes del estilo: "la historia es una polilla, su destino es la luz"...

Lo he terminado -y en diagonal- porque son muy pocas páginas con una fuente muy grande, doble interlineado y algunas páginas casi en blanco, y sobre todo por que quería ver si Alba editorial, de la que he leído verdaderas joyas escondidas, se había tragado semejante libro, o mejoraba o se me escapaba algo... Pero no,

Normalmente todos los libros de narrativa los dono a una librería solidaria al terminar de leerlos, pero con este no me atrevo, con eso lo digo todo.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short debut novel is told in three parts. Parts 1 and 3 are the voice of Jackson Pollack's painting, Blue Poles (otherwise known as no. 11), from its inception, through its early life in New York and its arrival in Australia. Part 2 is told from the point of view of Alyssa, a PhD student working on a thesis on the topic of Lee Krasner and Helen Frankenthaler (the women in Pollock’s life). This is a really interesting concept and on the whole it worked well. I think that being older, and having lived through the times of Whitlam's purchase of the painting, his removal, and how this work fitted into the wider political and social events of the times, enriched the novel for me. It is also quite topical given the National Gallery, where the painting hangs, took the opportunity of covid closures to do a major examination and restoration of the work.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost like an essay in fiction, Night Blue is a meditation on the origins and legacy of Jackson Pollock's infamous abstract expressionist work, "Blue Poles".

It focuses more on themes and concepts than on telling a story driven either by characters or plot, something I don't mind and can even relate to in my own writing, but that might not work for every reader.

I wish it had followed its own rules a little more - a silly complaint to have, perhaps, about a novel whose protagonist is a painting - but other than that, this was a lasting, lyrical little book that I really enjoyed.

[Ceyrone · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was recommended to me. At first I was unsure about it. I didn’t really understand what the book was about because of how it was described to me, and I didn’t think I would be interested in reading about a painting. But I have to say, I really enjoyed this, I was invested, I loved the way that it was written, and the idea of the birth of the painting and the painter being the creator. This is about the painting called ‘Night Poles’ by Jackson Pollock. The author has given the painting a voice. The painting so controversially bought by Gough Whitlam in 1973 before the National Gallery of Australia, in which it is housed, was built. There are three parts to the novel. Parts One and Three are the voice of the painting, Part Two is the voice of Alyssa, an assistant restorer, who is undertaking a PhD on Lee Krasner and Helen Frankenthaler. Highly recommend this book. It totally works and the author has done such a brilliant job. My only criticism is the ending, could have ended sooner. But on the whole, I will be recommending this to people and using it in the classroom.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Heather Taylor-Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Artists are often to blame for saying they don’t speak for the work, the work speaks for itself, which means it’s up to us to make sense of the art. Jackson Pollock’s paintings - and in the case of Night Blue we're looking at Blue Poles - is so untamable in a narrative sense that it makes for an interesting focal point in O'Keeffe's investigation of art and the stories we tell ourselves so that we might understand art or even view art. She begins with what the artwork knows and understands. Night Blue is told from the point of view of Blue Poles. I love the grandeur of the book's themes. I love that even the most abstract (expressionistic) of paintings has to reflect a moment in history while speaking to a multitude of smaller, more personal moments in the lives of those who view it. This is a book that lingers, as true art should.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful little book, told in part by the controversial Jackson Pollock painting “Blue Poles”. I really loved the story-telling, the weaving of history and its intersection with the memories and thoughts of all who came across this painting.

It flowed beautifully; despite not necessarily following a concrete plot, the narrative was woven like a tapestry and came together in a way that was unexpected but altogether expected. I wouldn’t have minded a less final ending.

I’ve seen this painting a few times and remained unimpressed, but now admit, after reading this book, that I have a keenness to see it again. And part of me wonders what the painting felt when it knew I was unimpressed, and yet I know the painting has such wisdom and depth it will UNDERSTAND where my disinterest comes from.

Now THAT makes a good storyteller!

[Michelle Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is beautiful. It’s so well written and it’s like poetry. The story is the weirdest concept I’ve engaged with. It’s a conversation between a painting and a woman. It’s based on a true story of an artist Pollock who’s painting Blue Poles was purchased by the Whitlam government before he was fired for the new Canberra art gallery. The painting sat in storage for 11 years and learns the fate of his creator via a tour guide’s description on its history. I don’t know how it worked but it is a gentle and lyrical read.

[Rocío Gómez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Está escrito de una forma diferente, cuenta una perspectiva única. Me parece que tiene mucho mérito porque en general cuando no hay una trama clara lo normal es que se pierda interés por el libro, pero no es el caso, sino todo lo contrario.

[Brendan Colley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tale about art, the nature of things, and how we come to be. An exquisite book. I knew I was reading something beautiful from the first page.

[Emma Granyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

No sé si ha estat per la originalitat del punt de vista narratiu i pel tema ('Postes Azules' de Jackson Pollock), però m'ha semblat una novel·la fantàstica.

[Anusha Siobhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the concept and was interesting to learn about the history (would love to know how much actually occurred e.g. the histories of the people who came into contact with the painting). However I found myself a bit unsure about the painting’s ‘personality’…. If it was a human protagonist I think I would have described them as quite annoying. Favourite bit were the segments about the original owners in NY and the daughter’s return at the end.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up because I'd never heard of a book before that was written from the perspective of a painting. The premise was definitely unique and kept me engaged throughout. I enjoyed the first two parts and how they were interconnected with the question of who told this story through who. I also appreciated the insight into a part of Australian politics that I wasn't aware of and also into the life and work of Jackson Pollock. Abstract expressionism isn't really my cup of tea, but I enjoyed the different perspectives on it offered here.

Since the painting at the center of this book is "Blue Poles" by Jackson Pollock, this book also explores questions of how to approach problematic artists and how different we used to and still are treating female artists in comparison to male ones. Given how short this book is, this wasn't explored in any depth but I appreciated this as a throwback to other books I'd read about these topics before, especially Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell's Invisible Life and Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma.

I liked the narration style from the perspective of the painting and the ideas about how art needs people and how it will always be linked to the artist who created it while also eventually standing on its own in a way. I also appreciated the way it explored the idea of how an artist gives part of themselves, their memories and emotions to their paintings or works of art and how this found expression in the story. I do have to say that the book broke its own conceit quite often; while it usually acknowledged this as well, it did feel a bit lazy to me because of the number of times it happened.

While I enjoyed the first two parts and the way they were connected, the book did lose me a bit in the third part, because I couldn't quite figure out who was writing this part based on the two foregoing parts. There were also some scenes here that I couldn't quite figure out the purpose of, e.g. what was up with the papers that suddenly appeared in the museum and were then flying around? I liked the way the story came to a close by returning to a character that introduced much earlier in the book, but I think the theme of how art impacts us could have been stronger; plus, it didn't feel like it fit with the first two parts, but especially the second.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and the ideas it touched upon. There were also some gorgeous quotes in here about art and grief that I really enjoyed. I do think that the connection between the three parts and some of the themes could have been thought out a bit better, but it definitely was a unique idea.


Favorite quotes:

"Light came from a tall window and through that window I saw a pink-flowering tree. It might have been a cherry tree, I'm not sure. The name is not important. It is the feeling a thing engenders that matters, not its name." (p. 22)

"I knew, instinctively, that it was people I needed - people taking me in, and me them. Apart from the great attention given to a painting by its artist, for what other reason do we exist?" (p. 34)

"A painting begins before it begins. Part of me is in that shadow, moving, swaying on the yellow grass." (p. 45)

"I lack judgement. I am made of feeling that constantly shifts, a continuun, an endless sentence. While judgement, as far as I can make out, is a full stop. Nor am I suggesting that judgement is a bad thing - often I wish I possessed it. But for some it is an easy thing, and perhaps ease is its downfall." (p. 58)

"Perhaps a story is not a thing that can live for itself, any more than I can. I live for living. This story lives for you.
Yes, you.
In the end, this story is no more than an invitation.
Come visit me. In the tall white building that sits beside the lake. ..." (p. 134)

"Grief was a dream you couldn't make yourself wake from. She knew this from when she was a child and her mother had died in a card accident. You must wait to be woken - by a shift in the light, a sound from the street, the waking itself as much a morphing into the next dream as it was a true awakening." (p. 139)

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll preface this short review by saying that Blue Poles is my favourite painting. Seeing it in person is an experience. I'm confident that even if the narrative around its presence in Australia didn't exist that I'd still consider it my favourite.

So, discovering this book, this gem, this hidden footprint of a work of art, is a bit of a journey. Angela has invited readers into the perspective of Blue Poles itself. She asks us to consider how it saw its existence, how it saw its journey from Jackson to a home, and then from that home to Australia. Through Blue Poles 'voice', we're asked to see what it sees when strangers, or Gough Whitlam, or Paul Hogan, come to see its defiant stance in a room.

This invitation to see how a painting sees the world can feel a little bit like a trick, like a narrative construction that promises to collapse any moment. But when you feel it starting to collapse, Angela shifts the book into its second part, and in doing so, she presents what I can only assume is her surrogate, someone who is in awe of the painting, held captive by it, having their world changed by it.

This in turn is just as fascinating as the section from Blue Poles perspective, mostly because it reminds us that art can change the world, that it can cause an impact on a life that shifts it into something, somewhere new.

I first saw Blue Poles sometime in the second half of 1993. It didn't mean anything to me then, but it wasn't until I saw it again in 1998 that I felt something. I didn't really know what that something was, but like so much of Canberra, it had a pull to it. When I revisited it in 2019, I wept at its existence. I felt a little childish doing so too as a gallery guide sat next to it, motionless, just staring forward into the middle distance until their shift was over. Surely these kinds of emotional reactions to art must feel rather normal for gallery staff, right? They too must be moved by pieces they sit by.

I can only imagine what it feels like to sit next to Blue Poles all day long. Pulled to it, yet only so far.

I was pulled to it again on my 40th birthday when I visited it, watching it sit on the wall and play in its own space. I wept there too. As I moved around the gallery, I found myself on a landing, looking down at the painting. A school group was listening to a lecture on it, and I watched as some kids fidgeted, others yawned, but one leaned forward in a stance of intrigue, not boredom. This child from 1998 transported to 2024. No doubt they'll be pulled back to that spot in decades to come.

I shed a tear at the Museum which has constructed blue poles in its outside area. The stature of this painting lingering in the space of Canberra. Its shadow is larger than its footprint, making it almost impossible to not experience an idea of Blue Poles before you actually experience Blue Poles. The cost, the sacking of Whitlam, the disgust, the intrigue, and then, finally, *finally*, the admiration.

And that's what Night Blue does. It reminds us why we admire this painting. Instead of being a biography of Jackson Pollock, it's a biography of the painting itself, and that makes us admire, respect, and adore the painting as a singular entity. It allows us to remove Jackson from the painting, distancing the two so they can stand singular from each other.

I should note that Pollock's art doesn't always elicit this kind of reaction in me. Some is awfully performative and obvious - yes, slashing a canvas is art, well done - and others feel like works of aggression or confusion. Blue Poles feels distinct in a way that makes me feel clarity like few paintings have made me feel. Anguish is the same. Realisation of what it means to feel and be moved by art.

Angela O'Keefe may not be Jackson Pollock - nobody is - but Night Blue goes very, very far at making us realise why his work and Blue Poles is deserving of the accolades and acclaim.

This book is deserving of it too. What an experience.

[Jo | Booklover Book Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an intriguing read! As my reading tastes have matured, I’ve found myself drawn to interesting perspectives rather than plots. I enjoy first-person narratives and particularly so novels with alternating first-person character viewpoints. That’s the value of reading right… exposure to different perspectives? So, it’s unsurprising I was enthralled by Jane Rawson’ amorphous From the Wreck narrator and blown away by Chris Flynn’s Mammoth (narrated by objects that once lived and breathed), but Angela O’Keefe’s 'Night Blue' is something quite different again.

I did not live the Whitlam political era but admired and benefitted from its reform agenda, so already had what I’d term glancing knowledge of the controversy surrounding Blue Poles’ purchase. I have not had the opportunity to see the artwork in person but understood it now embodied greater meaning than perhaps artist Jackson Pollocks’ original intention. So I found O’Keeffe’s exploration and then extrapolation of this ‘sponge-like’ quality (my term, hers are far more eloquent) of this artwork highly perceptive.

Her consideration of ‘the artistic life’ at times on par with that in Heather Rose’ award-winning The Museum of Modern Love. That said, Night Blue requires more active participation from readers. Continue reading: https://www.bookloverbookreviews.com/...

[lyny · Rating 3 out of 5]

A somewhat fanciful meditation on Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles, including how to read the painting and Jackson’s relationship with two female abstract expressionists, his wife Lee Krasner and Helen Frankenhalter. The book is mainly narrated by the painting! It not only tells a somewhat realist story of Jackson Pollock painting it, the initial sales to a family, and the transport to Australia first to AGNSW, then in storage, then the new National Gallery, but this narration isn’t confined to things where the painting itself was present or could see, it includes intuiting thoughts and back stories of viewers, and even the back story well known to Australians of the political furore caused by the Prime Minister's purchase of the painting. In part it also about an Australian woman doing a PhD on Krasner and Frankenhalter and sitting opposite the painting dwelling on it while she writes, and later going to the USA and visiting the house where it was painted, and dwelling on whether to leave her husband and whether to leave him. I found it readable but not a story whose interpretations I could easily summarize. I think it was seeing the painting not as a portrayal of anger or confusion but of peace, and with the meaning in its aesthetics; and a book raising the meaning of Pollock to the women without reducing his problems as a male artist or how they suffered as well as gained from their association. Overall it was readable but not a revelation.

[Natasha (jouljet) · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a painting hanging in the National Gallery of Australia, in Canberra, that holds much controversy, fascination and history. History of politics in this country, as well of the history behind the layers of paint splattered.

Blue Poles and it's purchase for the Gallery, is one of those quirky Aussie history stories - an American artist, the expense and furore, the eventual demise of the politician who instigated it's arrival to this side of the world. This small volume creates a story from the painting, and around the painting.

First, we hear from the painting itself, from it's first home and family, to being shipped and stored, touring the country, before it then finally found it's home on the Gallery walls. The painting tells it's history, from it's perspective and understanding. It also explores the atmosphere of visitors, their time with it, and the interaction of thoughts and art.

A young woman was one of the first people to visit frequently, initially when the painting was stood in the storage room. Seeking details, and searching for it's history, it's truths, and spending time with it as she herself ages.

A contemplation of the interaction between art and us, us and art. The different meanings, interpretations, significance at different times to different people. The history of a painting, from beginnings with the artist, his history weaving into it, to a much visited and pondered piece of expensive national folklore.

[Malvina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was visiting the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, and wanted to see Blue Poles. I inadvertently walked into a photographic set where the author Angela O'Keeffe was being interviewed in front of the painting, to publicise this very book. I had eyes only for the painting. I didn't see the lights, the people with notes and folders and cameras, etc., and sat down on a convenient bench to sit and simply look at one of my favourite paintings in the world. Eventually the staff came and told me where I had blundered but were very nice about it, and I also had a few words to the author Angela O'Keeffe, also excited by the release of her first book. Everyone agreed the painting had worked its magic on me to the exclusion of everything else. I obviously then had to get a copy of the book to read. It's taken a few years, but here we are.

This is an extraordinary book, told as it is in two parts from the point of view of the painting itself - but somehow managing to tell its own unique story and history. The other part was written from the POV of a woman who'd studied Fine Arts and was also fascinated by the story, and by Jackson Pollock and the tempestuous story of his marriage to Lee Krasner, herself a magnificent artist, plus the other women in Pollock's life - and death. Truly unique, and a great read. Can't wait for my next time in Canberra, when I can sit and have another contemplation.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a short novella, this book really grabs your attention. The first thing to note is the main narrator of the book is the Jackson Pollock painting Blue Poles. The new progressive government led by Gough Whitlam bought for the painting for the as yet new National Art Gallery for the then record price for a painting of 1.3million dollars. This was quite controversial at the time, and in some quarters still is. Yet now that price is about the average home price in Sydney and Melbourne and the painting draws visitors from around the world to see it. Most of the book is from the painting point of view, observing Pollack creating it, then observing the original owner in a New York City apartment with special emphasis on the children. Then its experiences being packed up and shipped to Australia and its puzzlement at moving around the country before again being enclosed. During this time he gets inspected a few times, and it especially notices one woman, who enters the story a bit later as a 2nd narrator: Alyssa. Alyssa is writing a PhD on the painting and the art movement of that time. Overall a fine book about creativity and how art interacts with world and vice versa.

[Janine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This small novella 'Night Blue' interrogates the idea that a painting can be seen as something separate from its creator. Presented in three parts, Parts I and III are told by Blue Poles the painting itself as narrator- something that requires the reader to suspend disbelief and cynicism. It is, as Yes Minister would say, a "courageous" narrative decision. Part II is told by Alyssa, an academic art historian, who many years earlier had done some conservation work on Blue Poles.

It is common enough for a non-fiction writer to use an inanimate object as the lens through which to shape their narratives, but it is less common for a fictional writer to do so. Was she successful? Not completely. At times, I found myself holding my breath as I almost gave in to it, but then my more logical part of my brain would kick in and my credence would ebb away.

The book is beautifully written, and almost against my will I learned a great deal about Blue Poles and its creation. It is bold and imaginative, but it just didn't quite work for me.

For my complete review, please visit:
http://residentjudge.com/2022/11/24/n...

[Bres · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book and was no doubt swayed by the fact that I'm an admirer of Blue Poles (I recommend seeing it at the National Art Gallery) and then add to that the unusual device of the painting itself being one of the narrators of the novel. I found the novel made me pause and think about art (not just paintings) - which is a good thing for any novel to do and still entertain you. My thinking centred around the differences between paintings and books (as the other narrator is a writer and thinks about words). I'm against the blockbuster exhibitions that our galleries entice us with as you become cattle parading past an endless list of paintings. How much better to be like the writer/narrator and spend time with a picture over and over again. We do that with our home paintings but not with THE paintings of international note. I found both the stories of each narrator a little bit wandering but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book. It's good to read something that is structured a little differently, learn about some paintings/painters and to be made to think.

[Jayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

A fascinating and beautifully written book, told mainly in the first person voice of the painting Blue Poles by Jackson Pollock, highlighting the permanence and value of art opposed to the transient nature of human life.

"But mostly I am here with the people who visit me, alive in their gaze. I give myself to them, over and over. I am yours, I say . . . ."

Blue Poles is one of the few famous artworks I have ever seen in person and it is certainly a magnificent piece. Its sheer size makes it overwhelming and the fact that you can view it over and over and see and feel something different each time.

The author has brought to life the controversy over the purchase of Blue Poles (which is now valued at $500 million) and the fall of the Whitlam government in such a vivid and lyrical way.
And so evocative of place - you can smell the eucalyptus.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting, original novella narrated by the painting, Jackson Pollock’s ‘Blue Poles’, and by Alyssa, a former arts student and part time conservator assistant.

‘Blue Poles’ was painted in 1952, in a barn converted into Jackson Pollock’s studio. Jackson was married to famous abstract artist Lee Krasner. Jackson Pollock died in a car crash in August 1956. The painting was sold in the 1950s and privately held until 1973 when the Australian Government purchased the painting for $1.3 million. It was on display for a short time in 1973 before being put into storage for eight years, awaiting the building and opening in 1982, of The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

This book was first published in 2021.

[frowning bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember my old Dad, a staunch Liberal voter his entire adult life, complaining of the travesty that was, decades after it happened in the 70s, when Whitlam bought "a million dollar scribble painting from the Yanks" causing an uproar with so many Australians. Dad was with me from the spiritual realm as I read this beautiful atmospheric novel and I think he's changed his mind about the whole kerfuffle. Gosh, I loved this book so much. Brilliant and highly original with crisp prose, fresh, moving, gentle, touching, meaningful, but pressing, moody, and commanding, highlighting a jarring slice of Australian politics and the ways in which art inspires life and life inspires art. Stellar!

[Sue Curr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Am I the only one not in raptures about the whole of this book. I loved the perspective of the painting being the narrator, a really clever concept, and the story of the girl's pursuit of her passion to the US made for an interesting read as well.
For a first novel it was good but I found it flawed. Once we got into that lyrical prose overkill I started to flick the pages, as well as her domestic situation - " I love him, I don't love him" didn't draw me in the way other sections of the book did.
The power to hold the reader was always with the Painting, Pollock and Lee.

[Alistair · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an extraordinary little book!
Ostensibly it tells the story of a painting, ‘Blue Poles’ painted by Jackson Pollock. Yet it is also something else entirely.
Narrated in part by the painting itself, from Pollock’s barn floor in 1952 to the controversial sale in 1973 to the Australian government for a record 1.3 million dollars. To say that the novella is about the transformative power of art makes it sound preachy and dry. Indeed nothing could be further from the truth: I found it hard to put down, swept up by the ideas swirling around in the text. I have never heard of the author - in fact, this is her debut, an astonishing achievement in itself.