How blue are my poles?

High tide at Clontarf is about 830am at the moment. As I scuffed along the wet sand, one eye on my grand-daughter, the other eye a quasi-camera, I was struck by the resemblance to that most famous of works in the National Gallery in Canberra.

It was the eleventh work created by Jackson Pollock in 1952, and it was not until two years later that he used the title "Blue Poles". I can see how that puts blinkers on viewers in the gallery, but I do like the insight into the artist's thinking. The work was purchased by the National Gallery in 1973, at a time of political turmoil, and economic upheaval. How can this incompetent mob of left-wing (communist sympathiser) politicians pay $1.3m (AUD) for this heap of junk, so the tabloids thundered. It had scant to do with artistic appreciation, and lots to do with political agenda. Should the work go on the market nowadays, it would fetch perhaps 50 times more. I have no idea, and I hope noone tries to test the water.