Editor’s Note
This article reports on a significant auction event where a major work by Japanese surrealist Tetsuya Ishida broke its own previous sales record, highlighting the dynamic and appreciating market for modern and contemporary art.
Bonhams’ first auction week at its new Asia headquarters culminated today (3rd) with the Modern & Contemporary Art sale. The spotlight was on Tetsuya Ishida’s large-scale surrealist painting “Man on a Conveyor Belt.” This work sold for HK$8.064 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2022, setting a then-auction record for the Japanese artist.
Two years later, the work reappeared at Bonhams, selling for over HK$10 million (including buyer’s premium), successfully breaking its own record. Overall, the sale achieved a 60% sell-through rate with 15 of 25 lots sold, generating a total turnover of nearly HK$13.6 million.
Lot 7 | Tetsuya Ishida (1973 – 2005) ‘Man on a Conveyor Belt’ | Acrylic on board | Artist’s Auction Record
– Created: 1996
– Dimensions: 145.7 x 103.2 cm
– Provenance:
– Q Gallery, Tokyo
– Private collection, Singapore
– Auction: Sotheby’s Hong Kong, ‘Modern & Contemporary Art: Hong Kong’, 8 July 2022, lot 6011 (Sold for: HK$8,064,000)
– Current owner acquired from the above
– Estimate: HK$7,500,000 – 9,500,000
– Hammer Price: HK$7,900,000
– Final Price (incl. premium): HK$10,013,000
The auctioneer for this sale was Desmond Kwun (Head of Modern & Contemporary Art). “Man on a Conveyor Belt” opened at HK$5 million and attracted bidding from at least three parties, including phone bidders and online buyers. After 9 bids, it was hammered down at HK$7.9 million to Julia Hu, Managing Director for Asia, bidding on behalf of phone client number “6026.”
The final price with premium, just over HK$10 million, successfully broke the auction record for Tetsuya Ishida previously held by this very work.
Tetsuya Ishida passed away in his early 30s, leaving behind a limited but profoundly impactful body of work that has captured the spirit of a generation.
Ishida’s characters are often neatly dressed salarymen, yet they are imprisoned within cold, unfeeling machinery or fused with inanimate architecture. Through this, Ishida reveals the desperate choices people make to survive, likening them to cogs trapped within the great machine of society. Emotions become suppressed, with no escape for the inner self, transforming individuals into half-human, half-mechanical zombies.
“Man on a Conveyor Belt,” created in 1996, reflects the impact of Japan’s “Lost Decade” economic stagnation on the individual. The painting depicts men in suits lying diagonally on an escalator from top to bottom. They share identical expressions and postures—pale, bloodless faces, closed eyes and lips, and arms hanging limply—blurring the line between human and machine.
On either side of the escalator, figures resembling factory line workers appear to be processing and adjusting the human forms lying on the escalator as if they were industrial products. The escalator’s composition creates a sense of spatial depth, drawing the viewer into the scene to witness this mechanized cycle firsthand.
With industrial development, society has become increasingly mechanized. Humans, like gears in a vast economic machine, are trapped in monotonous, meaningless routines, leading to a profound sense of alienation.
In Ishida’s work, the repetitive arrangement of figures intensifies the feeling of monotonous, relentless powerlessness. Their identical expressions and postures convey a sense of collective exhaustion and loss of identity. People are trapped in the giant production line called “modernity”—a conveyor belt with no exit, in a ceaseless, repeating cycle, with nowhere to escape.
Lot 9 | Li Chen ‘Traces of an Immortal on a Snowy Peak’ | Bronze sculpture
– Created: 2007
– Dimensions: 129 x 77 x 71 cm
– Edition: 5/8 (engraved on back)
– Provenance: Asia Art Center, Taipei; Galerie Annie Minet & Luc Merenda, Thouars, France; Private collection, France; Current owner inherited from above.
– Estimate: HK$600,000 – 800,000
– Hammer Price: HK$920,000
– Final Price: HK$1,172,400
Lot 10 | Li Chen ‘Chasing the Candle’ | Bronze sculpture
– Created: 2010
– Dimensions: 41 x 84 x 32 cm
– Edition: 2/8 (engraved on back)
– Provenance: Asia Art Center, Taipei; Galerie Annie Minet & Luc Merenda, Thouars, France; Private collection, France; Current owner inherited from above.
– Estimate: HK$800,000 – 1,200,000
– Hammer Price: HK$350,000
– Final Price: HK$448,000
Lot 12 | Lin Show Yu ’12th December 1958′ | Oil on canvas
– Created: 1958
– Dimensions: 121.9 x 92 cm
– Provenance: Gimpel Fils, London, UK; Formerly collection of Mr. Ross; Auction: Christie’s New York, 16 December 1987, lot 170; Private collection, New York; Current owner inherited from above.
– Estimate: HK$400,000 – 600,000
– Hammer Price: HK$350,000
– Final Price: HK$448,000
Lot 15 | André Brasilier ‘Horse Race at Tadenois’ | Oil on canvas
– Created: 1971
– Dimensions: 121.9 x 92 cm
– Provenance: Auction: Shinwa Art Auction, Tokyo, Japan, 18 May 2024, lot 179; Current owner acquired from above.
– Estimate: HK$200,000 – 300,000
– Hammer Price: HK$220,000
– Final Price: HK$281,600
Lot 24 | Yang Shaobin ‘Police Series No. 20, 42, 66 (Set of Three)’ | Oil on canvas
– Created: 1996
– Dimensions: 41 x 33 cm (each)
– Provenance: Schoeni Art Gallery, Hong Kong (acquired directly from the artist); Schoeni Family Collection.
– Estimate: HK$45,000 – 60,000
– Hammer Price: HK$210,000
– Final Price: HK$268,800
– Auction House: Bonhams Hong Kong
– Sale: Modern & Contemporary Art
– Auction Date: 2024/12/3
– Lots Offered: 25
– Lots Sold: 15
– Sell-Through Rate: 60%
– Total Turnover: HK$13,566,200