Provenance

Acquired from the artist by the current owner.

Literature

Hylton Nel and Michael Stevenson (2003) Hylton Nel: Conversations, Cape Town and London: Michael Stevenson and The Fine Art Society, a similar example seen in the artist's Calitzdorp studio, illustrated in colour on page 125.

Notes

Made and fired in Cape Town.

“Whilst still at school in Kimberly, Nel “had become aware of the vibrant turquoise colour found in Egyptian paste that he wanted to produce.” The result was rather clumsy and greenish-blue rather than turquoise, but much admired. Nel once said that the clumsy had always remained with him, and he had grown to accept that this was how he worked. Perhaps the ground-breaking nature of Nel’s work is that it allowed ceramics the scribbly freedom to play outside of the studio, to go out into the
corners of the garden and the artist’s mind, to draw attention to a medium that can step outside of the functional realm, or leave a foot behind, or scuff this distinction beneath a heel altogether. Nel broke through the deep conventional trenches of South African ceramics to show that in art-making, in self expression, there are no rules.”¹

¹ Olivia Barrel (ed) (2023) Clay Formes: Contemporary Clay from South Africa, Cape Town: Art Formes, page 35.