Paul Dibble

Paul Hugh Dibble (20 March 1943 – 5 December 2023) was a New Zealand sculptor.

Biography Born in Thames on 20 March 1943 and raised on a farm in Waitakaruru on the Hauraki Plains, Dibble was educated at Thames High School. He trained at the Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland from 1963, graduating with a Diploma of Fine Arts with Honours in 1967. He was one of the last group of Elam graduates to be trained traditionally with classes including modelling and life drawing.

Starting in 1965, Dibble collaborated with architect James Hackshaw and artist Colin McCahon on twelve projects to make works for Catholic churches in Auckland. He taught art at secondary schools during the 1970s, then was appointed to lecture on painting and sculpture at the Palmerston North College of Education in 1977. Dibble received grants from the QEII Arts Council in 1979 and 1985 and held a residency at the Dowse Art Museum in Lower Hutt in 1987–88. He was one of a small number of New Zealand sculptors who do their own large-scale casting.

Dibble was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the arts, in the 2005 New Year Honours, and in 2007 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree by Massey University. He was made an honorary Fellow of the Universal College of Learning in Palmerston North in 2012.

Dibble worked in bronze. He referenced the apple in the Garden of Eden in several works, and other works referenced aspects of New Zealand's history such as Maui's fishhook, Captain Cook, sheep and farming. the Dowse Art Museum, Te Manawa in Palmerston North, and the Christchurch Art Gallery.

In May 2018 Dibble's sculpture The Garden 2002 was unveiled in Havelock North by Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy.

Dibble died in Palmerston North on 5 December 2023, at the age of 80.

Notable commissions New Zealand War Memorial, London

Gallery