See
Hylton Nel This plate is what I have to say – at Charleston
A survey of sixty years of practice South African artist-potter Hylton Nel who first sold his work in the Christopher Farr in Primrose Hill in the 1980s, where he was spotted by Min Hogg, the legendary founder editor of World of Interiors. The exhibition, at Charleston until 10th September, presents a life in plates; an exploration of the artist’s storytelling and cultural curiosity expressed through the ceramic medium Nel is best known for.
Not only a master potter, Nel is an adept storyteller, using the humble dinner plate as his medium, he tackles concepts as monumental as religion and global politics to as intimate to his relationship with his mother and his lived queer experience.
‘When you do not know what to draw’, Nel wrote in his journal*, ‘stick up your hand and draw that.’
At Charleston in the exhibition space, which sits alongside the historic house, on view are over 200 plates from his extensive collection, which give a playful insight in to the artist’s mind; his imagination, wit and worldview.
Hylton Nel: This plate is what I have to say exhibits at Charleston alongside Betty Woodman and George Woodman, in the neighbouring Wolfson Gallery. Together, they mark the continuation of a long history of ceramics at Charleston. Bloomsbury artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, who transformed their home and studio at Charleston, were avid collectors. They would return from their international travels with plates, bowls, pitchers and more, picked up as souvenirs and proudly displayed throughout the rooms in the house.
‘Most of what I make are plates. The same shape over and over. But, like people, each one different. That means I don’t have to think too much about the shape and can concentrate on the thing that mostly gets me going, namely colour alone or combined with other colours, lines, blotches.’ Hylton Nel speaking on plates in his retrospective, 1996. Courtesy Marc Barben, Stevenson gallery, South Africa
Hylton Nel ‘This plate is what I have to say’
At Charleston until 10th September.
charleston.org.uk
sussexmodern.org.uk
Main image: Plate dated April 1st 1991 © Hylton Nel, courtesy Stevenson, Cape Town, Johannesburg and Amsterdam