As Popular As Pierneef And Stern: Hylton Nel Gets His Own Single-Artist Sale At Strauss & Co

• 49-lot live sale devoted exclusively to Hylton Nel
• Includes excellent examples of cat sculptures
• Pair of cats of yellow bases carries highest pre-sale estimate
• Includes single-owner collection of works from Nel’s Port Elizabeth period

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.