Strauss & Co is delighted to present A World in Clay: Hylton Nel’s Ceramic Studio, a 49-lot single-artist auction devoted to the work of Hylton Nel, the cult artist-potter from Calitzdorp, commencing on Tuesday, 17 September 2024 at 5pm.
Best known for his cat sculptures and press-moulded plates painted anything but brown, collector interest in Nel is extraordinarily strong following various high-profile international engagements over the past two years.
The catalogue for A World in Clay: Hylton Nel’s Ceramic Studio includes Nel’s iconic Weeping Cat (estimate R80 00 – 120 000 / $4 495 – 6 740), which was quoted in reproduction for Dior’s 2025 men’s summer catwalk show in Paris in June 2024. The related fashion collection extensively quotes Nel’s motifs. A year earlier, in 2023, Nel’s work was the subject of a survey exhibition at Charleston, the former Sussex home and studio of English painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, now a museum.
Comprising works made between 1982 and 2004, A World in Clay: Hylton Nel’s Ceramic Studio features a large selection of early pieces acquired directly from the artist at his now legendary house sales of the 1980s and 90s. Collectors will delight in a pair of Venus and Sebastian sculptures (estimate R50 000 – 70 000 / $2 810 – 3 935) and a bowl decorated with a painted motif of female nude and leaf (estimate R1 500 – 2 500 / $85 –140), both from Nel’s under-the-radar Port Elizabeth period (1974-87).
“We first offered a work by Hylton Nel in a 2010 sale, a cheerful plate, and since then his delightful work has been a sustained presence in our auctions,” says Bina Genovese, Managing Executive, Strauss & Co. “A World in Clay: Hylton Nel’s Ceramic Studio follows on a successful 2021 sale in which we presented his ceramic sculpture, achieving R125 180 for his wonderful 2009-10 sculpture Sphinx. Since then, Hylton Nel’s star has continued to rise.
Adds Bina Genovese: “A World of Clay: Hylton Nel’s Ceramic Studio forms part of a strategic project at Strauss & Co to best showcase individual artists with strong collector followings. This sale devoted to Hylton Nel follows on our highly successful single-artist sales dedicated to John Muafangejo, Irma Stern and JH Pierneef, and locates him as a preeminent ceramic artist. We are particularly thrilled by the strong consignment of cat sculptures, which are especially popular with collectors.”
Nel’s output of sculpture is closely linked with his portrayal of cats referencing the iconography of ancient Egypt, classical China and even Staffordshire ware. The catalogue for A World of Clay: Hylton Nel’s Ceramic Studio includes a yellow and black cat perched on a round base from 2000 (estimate R60 000 – 80 000 / $3 375 – 4 495) and, made a year later, a pair of Cats on Yellow Bases (estimate R150 000 – 200 000 / $8 430 – 11 2400).
A World of Clay: Hylton Nel’s Ceramic Studio also includes examples of Nel’s utilitarian plates and bowls decorated with idiosyncratic figural motifs, quotes and/or diverse patterns. “The same shape over and over, but like people each one different,” Nel wrote in 1996 when his work received its first serious consideration at the Fine Art Society, London. A World of Clay: Hylton Nel’s Ceramic Studio is supported by a lavishly illustrated catalogue, with notes by the artist, that can be downloaded from Strauss & Co’s website.
For more information, visit the Strauss and Co website, or browse their e-catalogue.
