1999 Giant Male Figure After Goya model

The first of the small seated male figures was titled Giant Male Figure After Goya.  It was made small as a model and then scaled up large to a height of 2.7 meters as an edition of three; ending up in such varied addresses as in Auckland overlooking a view of Governor Grey’s house on Kawarau Island and at a winery in Havelock North.  Many people have referred to the work as Paul Dibble’s “thinker” probably because it depicts an isolated man involved in thought like the famous work by Rodin.

The ideas behind the seated male figures are from Paul’s fondness for Goya’s etchings and they draw directly from them.  Goya did one series about the Napoleonic wars featuring huge figures sitting quietly on a hillside looking down on the fighting and atrocities taking place. In a NZ context they reflect the lonely individual pondering the changes in our south antipodean paradise.

These ideas of the solitary figure are carried on with also using female forms.  Essentially they deal with formal qualities of the linear rhythms of the figure opposed to the solid mass of the block on which they sit.

Further seated figures with variations in posture have been made.  Some have the arms tilted back differently, the legs bent instead of straight and juxtapositioned against the base.  All of them contain the same sense of isolation and serenity.