The Prime Minister's Christmas Card: Blue Poles and Cultural Politics in the Whitlam Era

by Lindsay Barrett

Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles was hailed as a masterpiece by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam when it was acquired for a record price by the Australian National Gallery in 1973. But far from being the jewel in Whitlam's cultural crown, the painting became instead a symbol of the Whitlam Government's flamboyance, extravagance, and excess.

Both political history and cultural analysis, The Prime Minister's Christmas Card traces the events...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1864872756
• ISBN13: 9781864872750
• Release Date: January 2011
• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher