Things Made Over Time: Hylton Nel

29 June – 10 August 2024

‘When you look at the variety of things made over time, sometimes they are made around the same time but look very different from one another; other times things are separated by time, but look very similar. As far as I am concerned they are the same, but in fact there are variations and changes. Things are ‘of a time’, there are flows, and sometimes they shift abruptly. I only see them clearly after a while, because at the time of making it you’re sort of in the middle of it. Time gives it distance. After a long time I can look at my things and think, that’s nice, but in that moment of making it, one is too close. You need time to see them.’
Antwerp, Belgium, c.1967-68

ARTIST'S COLLECTION
Untitled (reclining nude), 1987

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‘It’s a strange sensation to be old which one never expected, you can’t really imagine it, you just find yourself there. You think what for, why do I do it. I do it because it’s a thing that comes most naturally, somehow, I’m happy doing it, I like to see the transformation from this to that to that. And opening the kiln is a shock, of a kind.’
Tracing his passage across Belgium, England, Gqeberha and the cattle-farming town of Bethulie in which he spent a decade, to his current home studio in Calitzdorp, the works in Things Made Over Time encompass geopolitics, pets and sexuality, reflecting a contemporary life mediated through the long tradition of ceramics.
calitzdorp, 17 April 2004

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'The Chinese idea of originality is something that makes sense to me, originality is very rare, truly original stuff, but every now and then it occurs, so people paint deliberately in styles that have gone before, a landscape by so and so in the style of some master of the past, but every now and then you get a truly original painter, and then a new school starts with that. Whereas in the west we expect, demand, originality. It’s not something that can just be demanded like that.'
'From an existing piece, historic or mine, a new shape or pattern or colour inspires me. It could be an Imari plate from a good period, late 17th or early 18th century with a blue outside and the iron-red and gold in addition to the blue on the inside, and a small Ming period peasant bowl with a blue outside and blue-and-white inside. I find little aspects of somethings able to seed another whole batch of things.'
Calitzdorp, 1 March 2024

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CALITZDORP, 30 MAY 2024

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Hylton Nel was born in 1941 in N’kana, Zambia, and now lives and works on the outskirts of Calitzdorp in the Klein Karoo.

Nel describes himself as an 'artist-potter', which aptly refers to his interest in painted imagery as well as form and function. Over the past five decades he has developed a style of work that is rich in references to the decorative arts and literary and art historical sources. His plates, bowls, vases, plaques and figurative pieces are idiosyncratically decorated with witty - and sometimes poignant - line drawings and script. His imagery ranges from penises to Madonnas, cats to angels, and his quotes are drawn from poetry and the daily press as well as his observations of the world around him.

Things Made Over Time is Nel’s sixth solo show at Stevenson, following Bowls in Johannesburg (2022). His work has been the subject of various survey exhibitions, including This plate is what I have to say in Charleston, East Sussex, UK (2023); Hylton Nel at 80, Fine Art Society, London, UK (2021) and Hylton Nel: Retrospective Exhibition at the Standard Bank National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, which travelled to the Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg; Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery, University of the Free State and King George VI Art Gallery, Port Elizabeth (2001-2002). Other notable solo shows include Hylton Nel: For Use and Display, The Fine Art Society, London (2017); New Ceramics by Hylton Nel, The Fine Art Society, London, UK (1997); Hylton Nel - A Prayer for Good Governance, The Fine Art Society, London, UK (1996); and Gay Rights Re-Writes, Gertrude Posel Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa (1986).

Photography credit: Pieter Hugo
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Things Made Over Time: Hylton Nel

Antwerp, Belgium, c.1967-68

WHITSTABLE, KENT, C.1969–1973

PORT ELIZABETH, C.1974–1987

Port Elizabeth, c.1974–1987

Port Elizabeth, c.1974–1987

PORT ELIZABETH, C.1974–1987

PORT ELIZABETH, C.1974–1987

ECCO L'UOMO, c.1974–1987

ECCO L'UOMO, 1987

UNTITLED (NUDE WITH KNIFE), 1987

Bethulie, c.1991-2002

Bethulie, c.1991–2002

BETHULIE, C.1991–2002

‘MADE ON A LUCKY DAY IN AUGUST 1991 AT THE FERVENT SWALLOW STUDIO’ BETHULIE, C.1991–2002

BETHULIE, C.1991–2002

BETHULIE, 7 August 1992

Bethulie, 1 April 1993

Bethulie, 14 MARCH 1994

Bethulie, 17 MARCH 1994

AAN DIE NOORDE KANT VAN BETHULIE’ BETHULIE, 18 JANUARY 1995

BETHULIE, 18 JANUARY 1995

Untitled (reclining nude), 1987

BETHULIE, 11 APRIL 1995

Bethulie, 11 April 1995

BETHULIE, 15 JANUARY 1996

Bethulie, 25 January 1996

Bethulie, 6 June 1996

Bethulie, 12 November 1996

BETHULIE, 15 NOVEMBER 1996

BETHULIE, 15 NOVEMBER 1996

Bethulie, 30 December 1997

BETHULIE, 9 JANUARY 1998

BETHULIE, 9 JANUARY 1998

BETHULIE, 18 MARCH 1998

BETHULIE, 22 APRIL 1998

BETHULIE, 14 JULY 1998

BETHULIE, 5 AUGUST 1999

BETHULIE, 23 MARCH 1999

Bethulie, 8 December 1999

Bethulie, 14 December 1999

Bethulie, 15 February 2000

Bethulie, 4 August 2000

Bethulie, 31 October 2000

Bethulie, 31 October 2000

Calitzdorp, 4 August 2002

Calitzdorp, 31 October 2002

Calitzdorp, 19 November 2002

CALITZDORP, 18 DECEMBER 2002

Calitzdorp, 10 January 2003

Calitzdorp, 17 March 2003

CALITZDORP, 20 APRIL 2003

Calitzdorp, 27 October 2003

Calitzdorp, 11 November 2003

Calitzdorp, 4 February 2004

calitzdorp, 17 April 2004

CALITZDORP, 4 FEBRUARY 2004

CALITZDORP, 22 DECEMBER 2004

CALITZDORP, 22 DECEMBER 2004

CALITZDORP, 11 APRIL 2005

Calitzdorp, 10 May 2006

Calitzdorp, 24 January 2007

Calitzdorp, 29 January 2007

Calitzdorp, 5 February 2007

CALITZDORP, 1 DECEMBER 2005

CALITZDORP, 2 DECEMBER 2005

Calitzdorp, 19 June 2007

CALTIZDORP, 25 October 2007

Calitzdorp, 26 May 2008

CALITZDORP, 15 APRIL 2008

Calitzdorp, 26 August 2008

Calitzdorp, 5 November 2008

CALITZDORP, 18 JULY 2009

CALITZDORP, 4 JANUARY 2010

CALITZDORP, 21 JULY 2010

CALITZDORP, 17 MARCH 2011

CALITZDORP, 11 NOVEMBER 2011

Calitzdorp, 13 June 2012

Calitzdorp, 13 June 2012

Calitzdorp, 14 june 2012