Exhibition showcases Paul Dibble sculptures
Palmy boasts many of his public artworks
Palmerston North is sometimes referred to as a Paul Dibble gallery. The city centre is home to six of his sculptures plus one each at Victoria Esplanade, Massey University and IPU New Zealand.
Visitors to Te Manawa Art Gallery now have the chance to see a range of his work from private collections that have been loaned for the Continuum exhibition.
It opened last Friday but Dibble, 80, was unwell and unable to attend. He and his wife Fran were represented by their four children.
Te Manawa chief executive Susanna Shadbolt said the exhibition showcased some of the highlights of his extensive career.
“He has created an extraordinary legacy over the past decades and is recognised as one of Aoteaora’s leading artists of his generation.”
An important turning point in his career was the sculpture Pacific Monarch outside the art gallery commissioned by the Te Manawa Art Society in the early 1990s, she said.
“It was the beginning of Paul’s practice moving into larger-scale work. Pacific Monarch is as relevant to us now as it was then. It is a monument to all the people who have settled in Palmerston North and have brought aspects of a culture with them.”
During his career Dibble has created more than 1000 sculptures.
Shadbolt said some people fondly remark that Palmerston North is “a Paul Dibble gallery”.
Zimmerman Art Gallery director Bronwyn Zimmerman has compiled a map of the nine Dibble public sculptures in the city. One people might have previously overlooked is
Waiting for Godot outside Zimmerman House at 310 Church St.
The map is available from Te Manawa.
Mayor Grant Smith said Dibble’s first public piece in the city is 1988’s
Impossible Dialogue at Massey University. The most recent is 2019’s
Dawn Chorus on the Fish of Maui at Victoria Esplanade.
He said it was an honour to be associated with the “exceptional exhibition” and it was a real pleasure to see the extensive recognition of Dibble.
“I have to admit I’m a proud owner of a couple of smaller pieces of Dibble’s. Somebody said to me ‘I wonder if any of these are on sale later on’ and I said ‘They may be, they are secondhand of course. You need some deep pockets for this stuff.”’
Dibble graduated from the Elam School of Fine Arts in 1967 and in the 1970s worked with architect James Hackshaw making artwork for churches.
In 1977, he began teaching at Palmerston North Teachers’ Training College and in 2000 left teaching to take up full-time studio practice.
In the exhibition notes, Fran Dibble writes a classic Paul Dibble quip is that his sculptures will last as long as the planet — bronze as a media endures.
The free exhibition runs until March 10.