The theme for the 2022 Canberra International Music Festival is ‘Pole to Pole’, and some of the most famous poles in the country are housed at the National Gallery of Australia. Jackson Pollock’s masterpiece of abstract expressionism, Blue Poles, also known as Number 11, 1952, was purchased by the NGA in 1973. Its price of $1.3 million – a world record for a contemporary American painting at the time – caused howls of outrage against the Whitlam government’s perceived profligacy, inspiring a national debate between those who admired the painting and those who thought their toddler could have painted it.

This Sunday, as part of the festival, a concert will be performed at the NGA inspired by Blue Poles, and by the broader cultural impact of American modernism. The featured performers are the Alma Moodie Quartet, a relatively new string quartet featuring four of Australia’s finest younger string players – violinists Kristian Winther and Anna Da Silva Chen, violist Alexina Hawkins and cellist Thomas Marlin – who will perform Ruth Crawford Seeger’s Andante movement from her String Quartet, John Cage’s infamous 4’33, and the world premiere of a new string quartet by Australian composer Brian Howard, entitled Blue Poles.

Hugh Robertson...