Provenance

From the artist's private collection.

Acquired from the artist by the current owner, 1997.

Notes

Made and fired in Calitzdorp.

“...cats are both surrogates and soothsayers. He has spoken of their role as human substitutes, 'as both portraits and self-portraits', which allows him to avoid ‘being blatant’ or literal in his suggestion or satirisation of people”¹

^1. Professor Tamar Garb (no date) The Fine Arts Society Journal, Pots, politics and the wisdom of cats, online, https://www.thefineartsociety.com/journal/issue-5/hylton-nel/, accessed 15 August 2024.

Cats – often sporting human attributes such as voluminous hairstyles and manicured eyebrows, and with expressions ranging from grumpy to benevolent – are a recurring symbol in the ceramic work of Hylton Nel.

At first glance they might read as kitsch ornamentation – importantly, the only ornamental objects in an otherwise vast utilitarian output of bowls, vases, and plates. Hylton once defined ornaments as "necessary to the enjoyment of life"¹ – to be picked up, handled, and touched. The cat’s role as both a curiosity and ornament has deep roots in the revered cat-deities of ancient Egypt to cat figurines in decorative tradition, yet for Nel, they serve as seemingly ‘regular things’ that fit his queer sensibility into established artistic practices. Being queer can be seen as occupying a minority position, where one might not fully align with societal expectations. Creating these cat ornaments is a way to fit into the world, as they represent something that appears ordinary.

However, these cats are far from ordinary. Michael Stevenson comments that "His cats may have papal shoes if made at the time of election of Pope Francis or inscribed with cryptic rude words if a politician is irritating Nel, or they may be a little coy and flirtatious if Nel maybe feels like that on a certain day."²

In this way, we begin to understand the cats as substitutes for human subjects – portraits and self-portraits allowing Nel to explore human personalities and social commentary without being overtly literal. They offer not only a playful critique through
their expressions and quirks but also an opportunity for pointed irreverent humour. This duality is evident in Nel’s use of text and slogans that challenge the sentimentality often associated with ceramic cats, imbuing them with political and polemical
significance.

Nel’s cats grew gargantuan in Dior’s recent Spring/Summer 2024 Collection, which prominently featured enlarged versions of his ceramic creatures along the runway – models weaving through them while sometimes clutching a ceramic cat themselves.

Kim Jones, Dior’s Artistic Director, integrated Nel’s ceramic cats into the collection’s tailoring and accessories – celebrating Nel’s distinctive ceramic art, positioning his playful and provocative cats within the realm of high fashion, and highlighting their roles as both curious ornaments and insightful commentators on the human condition.

Professor Tamar Garb notes, "And the cats, curious, knowing and aloof, appear to look on, cyphers of wisdom and witness, themselves culled from history and clay. Not quite deities or fetishes – they are too funny and iconoclastic for that – they nevertheless appear quite separate from the world they survey. At once ornaments and oracles, pieces of high culture and kitsch, they scramble and destabilise our categories. And there’s certainly a politics in that."³

More of Hylton Nel's cats can be seen in lots 125, 131, 132, 145 and 146.

^1. Richard Ingleby (2021) Hylton Nel at Eighty, London: Blackmore, page 10.

^2. Michael Stevenson (2017) Introduction in Hylton Nel: For Use and Display, London: The Fine Art Society, unpaginated.

^3. Professor Tamar Garb (2021) Pots, Politics, and the Wisdom of Cats in Hylton Nel at Eighty, London: Blackmore, page 27.