[1] The 1996 book Voices of Fire: Art Rage, Power, and the State, edited by Bruce Barber, Serge Guilbaut and John O'Brian, discusses the issues around the purchase of the painting.

Commissioned for Expo 67, the International and Universal Exposition that took place in Montreal during Canada's 1967 centennial, Voice of Fire was part of the U.S. pavilion organized by art critic and historian Alan Solomon.

The exhibition, American Painting Now featured the work of twenty-two artists installed in the U.S. Pavilion, a geodesic dome designed by engineer Buckminster Fuller (now the Montreal Biosphere).

It was displayed in a large, high-ceiling space, with only a few other works by American artists Milton Resnick, Jackson Pollock and Tony Smith.

[5] In March 1990, the National Gallery announced its purchase of the painting for $1.8 million,[6] which ignited a "firestorm" of media attention and controversy in Ottawa mostly centred on the question of whether the work was worthy of being called art.