‘Thijs’ Mathijs Isak Nel (1943 – 2020)
Flower Design
1988
oil on canvas
130 x150 cm
BIOGRAPHY
Mathijs Isak Nel was an artist, potter, writer, playwright and poet. He was born in the Waterberg and grew up in the North West Transvaal (now North West Province). He matriculated from the Merensky Higher Agricultural School in Tzaneen and obtained his BA degree in Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand.
From 1965 to 1970 he was art editor of Die Vaderland.
Between 1970 and 1975 he lived, worked and studied in Paris, France, first for two years at the Cité International des Arts, where he completed murals in the dining room of the Amadeus Mozart School in Bois d’Arcy and at Neuilly-sur-Marne, and studied lithography in the studios of Henri Deprest and Jean-Paul Pons. He then shared a studio with opera director and designer Jean-Yves Tavernier, where he gained valuable experience in the use of lighting effects.
From 1990 onwards, he began to explore the possibilities of clay and ceramics in art. In 1997 he and his partner, Johan Gerber, moved from Randburg to Oudtshoorn, where he was involved, among other things, with the Felix Trust, which provided clay houses as a response to South Africa’s housing shortage.
He held more than 40 art exhibitions in South Africa, France, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
His artwork is included in numerous museums and public and private collections in France, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands, Israel, Ethiopia, South Africa and China. His commissioned work included the set for Sukov’s production of Don Pasquale and several fountains for well-known gardens, including the Peace for Africa fountain on the campus of the University of Pretoria.