When one thinks of contemporary Japanese artists, one probably thinks of Yoshitomo Nara and Yayoi Kusama. However, there is another name that is not quite as well-known outside of the country, but whose short career had an immense legacy on the country’s art: Tetsuya Ishida. His surrealist artwork has been renowned domestically, and in the years following his passing, his artwork has been important in depicting Japan’s culture of work and economic decline, painting a bleak picture of the nation’s workforce and society.
Within his body of work, roughly 200 paintings, one work stands out, The Men On A Belt Conveyor (1996), a painting that speaks to Japan's "Lost Generation". It is the artist’s auction record-holder, having been last sold by Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2022 for around HK$8.06 million (around US$1.03 million). Part of what makes the painting appealing is its size, being 145.7 x 103.2 cm, one of the artist's comparatively large works in his oeuvre.
On 3 December, the work hit the market again at Bonhams Hong Kong's Modern Contemporary Art Sale, estimated at HK$7.5 - 9.5 million (US$980,000 - 1.2 million). The lot ended up breaking the record set two years ago with a final sale price of around HK$10 million (around US$1.28 million), including commission.
Lot 7 | Tetsuya Ishida (1973 - 2005) | The Men On A Belt Conveyor, Acrylic on panel
Painted in 1996
145.7 x 103.2 cm
Provenance (Supplemented by The Value):
- Gallery Q, Tokyo
- Private Collection, Singapore
- Sale: Sotheby's, Hong Kong, Contemporary Curated: Hong Kong, 8 July 2022, Lot 6011 (Sold: HK$8,064,000)
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: HK$7,500,000 - 9,500,000
Hammer Price: HK$7,900,000
Sold: HK$10,013,000 (around US$1.28 million)
Auction House: Bonhams Hong Kong
Sale: Modern and Contemporary Art
Date: 3 December 2024
The auction for the painting opened at HK$5 million, with it immediately attracting attention from specialists representing their clients on the phone. A total of nine bids were made for the prized cover lot, with bidders driving up the price by leaps and bounds with increments of HK$500,000.
When the lot hit HK$7.5 million, the bidding became more tense with cautious bidders opting to move in HK$100,000 increments. Julia Hu (Managing Director, Asia) won the lot for her client with the paddle number 6026 and a hammer price of HK$7.9 million.
A photograph of Tetsuya Ishida
Born in Yaizu, Shizuoka, in 1973, the art of Tetsuya Ishida was highly reflective of the period he lived in Japan, the end of the 20th to early 21st centuries. His paintings would often depict hyperrealistic men who are integrated and painted alongside modern machines, buildings, or animals. Such a thematic focus was highly critical of Japan’s society following its postwar economic miracle, fitting as his generation of Japanese society is commonly referred to as the “Lost Generation,” those who witnessed the nation’s economic decline.
His artworks focus on depicting how Japan’s urban and corporatized environment was highly draining on individuals across all age groups, with people drawn into the environment around them as they are physically warped by the machines of daily life, a commentary on modern Japanese culture and attitudes to how ingrained people are in their work.
Tetsuya seemed to despise the nature of Japan’s industry and how Japan had developed postwar. The rapid economic growth of the Japanese Miracle gave way to a technocratic and sterile society in which, in the eyes of Tetsuya, humans were merely accomplishing goals set within the wider economy, not as individuals. Tetsuya’s painting of Japanese males from childhood to adulthood exhibited that Tetsuya, who grew up in Japan’s economically declining society from start to finish, churned out workers for their “machine.”
This commentary is tragic in the case of Tetsuya, as he took his own life in 2005 as a result of the abuse he endured at the hands of a manager during his job as a night watchman, and with his wrongful termination. He often spoke of the impacts of both mental health and overwork on young men, the most prevalent theme throughout his art.
Tetsuya Ishida | Supermarket (1996), Acrylic on Board, 103 x 146 cm | Sold for HK$1.58 million (around US$203,007) by Christie's Hong Kong, 2008
Tetsuya Ishida | Ni [Cargo] (1997), Acrylic on Board, 103 x 146 cm | Y++ Wada Fine Arts, Tokyo
Tetsuya Ishida | General Manger's Chair In An Abandoned Building (1996), Acrylic on Board, 145.6 x 103 cm | Sold for HK$3.7 million (around US$475,398) by Christie's Hong Kong, 2017
The Men on a Belt Conveyor (1996) is no different regarding the themes that inspire the work, as it displays six men collapsed on a conveyor belt as others pick away at them, an allegory for the life of a salaryman during Japan’s “Lost Decade.” Each man lies on the escalator as two figures standing opposite of each other use tools to dissect and remake each individual as per society's requirements. It is a commentary on how even when people are adults, Japanese society still tries to reform and control them for its purposes.
Not unlike his other works, he conveys the point that Japan is this sterile society driven by a work culture that is dominating people's lives all the while giving off the air of a technologically advanced society.
Tetsuya also highlights the idea of conformity in this work and how Japanese society molds individuals to be so similar that individuality is lost. Notice how all the salarymen share the same face, expression, clothing, pose, and distance from each other. Even more interesting is how all the individuals modifying and changing the figures on the escalator are the same. Tetsuya here is perhaps trying to tell the audience that those who enforce change are also victims of society's wider desire to have individuals conform.
Finally, Tetsuya is critical of the audience and broader Japanese society, who are aware of what occurs in the country but do nothing to change the situation. The perspective of the audience is at the top of the escalator, looking down and witnessing the way society transforms people. By giving this perspective, Tetsuya seems to be telling the audience that they can see everything that occurs but are willfully ok with it and perhaps ok with being the next-in-line to join the soul-sucking workforce.