[4] Renowned art collector and supporter Ben Heller[5] acquired the painting in 1957 a year after Jackson Pollock died for a reported $32,000.

The painting was so large that it required the removal of apartment windows to lower it onto the street below, a feat accomplished with the support of the "Seven Santini Brothers" moving team.

[8] The gallery's director at the time, James Mollison, was not able to authorise purchases over $1 million, so the acquisition was approved by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam who decided that the price should be made public.

[12] In 1998, Blue Poles left Australia for the first time since its purchase for inclusion in a Pollock retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York which ran from 1 November 1998 to 2 February 1999.

[13] While rarely loaned, the work was displayed as part of the Royal Academy's Abstract Expressionism exhibition from 24 September 2016 to 2 January 2017 in London,[14] before returning to the NGA and being rehung in level 2.

[15] As a result of the gallery's temporary closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it became possible to undertake an extensive conservation project of Blue Poles, a work that has rarely been off display since its purchase in 1973.