New Zealand Sculpture: A History

Until this book first appeared in 2002, for all the many studies of New Zealand painting, sculpture remained the poor relation, given little attention by art critics or scholars. In the book, now updated with an additional chapter and new plates, Michael Dunn attempts to redress the balance, presenting a concise history of New Zealand sculpture since colonial times. Professor Dunn charts the development of sculpture in New Zealand from an era of British imports and influence to an awakening in the 1940s of a sense of the local environment and its distinctive character. He shows a growing confidence and diversity emerging in the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first, as the commissioning of sculpture increased, contemporary Maori artists in particular attracted attention and New Zealand sculptors gained a new international reach. Illustrated with 10 new colour plates added to the original 89 colour and 80 black and white photographs, and including a bibliography and reading lists for each major artist, this handsome book tells the enthralling story of an art form that has gone from strength to strength in recent years.

Michael Dunn is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Auckland.