Japanese Artist Series: Ishida Tetsuya 石田徹也
Ishida Tetsuya is famous for the disturbed atmosphere and particular themes portrayed in his paintings. Though the subjects in them are resembled to Ishida's own face, Ishida denied them as his self-portraits. He shared them as the anecdotes of his parents[1] who were puzzled on his decisions as the artists and the nature of his works. His parents put pressure on him academically as they wanted him to be either a chemist or a teacher. Ishida entered Musashino Art University where majored in Visual Communication Design.[2] When he refused to study science, his parents cut off his financial supports. He studied arts, at the same time, worked in part-time jobs to earn a living. By the late 1990s, he was a celebrated professional artist because of his themes and surreal style. His mother was particularly upset by his self-portraits because she felt that they were too dark.2 However, he assured her that being an artist was the happiest time because he could communicate better through his painting than he could in person. He won lots of awards locally and internationally between the late 90s and the early 00s.[3] His parents later came to accept his works as part of his personality and that they, particularly his father, though they still didn't understand his art.[4]
Ishida’s themes of despair at the structures of a modernized, hyper-industrialized society where conformity is prized which are distinctly Japanese.3 He had strong criticism on working and immerging into the society. In general, the colours were in grey tone that defied the cold and low-key palette.4 Traumatized by loss of purpose and identity, angered by the rigid social and educational structures of Japan, Ishida revealed his anxiety through his bizarre and original metamorphoses and heightened the atmosphere by his vision – a simplified schematic style and muted, foreboding colors.[5] According to the managing director of Gagosian Gallery, Nick Simunovic, who was responsible for Ishida’s exhibition in Hong Kong in 2011, “Ishida’s highly surreal paintings captured his feelings of hopelessness, claustrophobia, and emotional isolation that burdened him and that dominated Japanese society during his generation era. His work is also utterly unique in this regard and radically different from the anime and manga-inspired art which tends to dominate contemporary visual culture in Japan.”[6] These and his suicide aroused the public's immediate and emotional response to the imagery found in his paintings. Some people regarded Ishida’s style as Kafkaesque because he produced the sense of tapping the viewers into the alienation with the elements of absurd and strange individuals in the bureaucratic and mechanized world.[7] Unfortunately, he died which fell into the train track and left behind with the saddest painting. Some people regraded as an accident while some regarded as his suicide. At the age of 31, over 180 pieces of works were produced.[8]
Reference:
[1] Caro. "Late Artist Tetsuya Ishida Continues to Impress with Nightmarish Paintings." Hifructose, 8 June. 2015. http://hifructose.com/2015/06/18/late-artist-tetsuya-ishida-continues-to-impress-with-nightmarish-paintings. Accessed 17 Apr 2017.
[2] 《有笑聲_低層的悲歌_石田徹也》，《好想藝術》，香港電台，香港，2014年7月14日。
[3] Ishida Tetsuya Exhibition Executive Committee. "Profolio." Tetsuya Ishida, world - People no longer fly - Tetsuya Ishida official website, 2016, http://tetsuyaishida.jp/71843/gallery/gallery3/?lang=en. Accessed 17 Apr 2017.
[4] Caro. "Late Artist Tetsuya Ishida Continues to Impress with Nightmarish Paintings." Hifructose, 8 June. 2015, http://hifructose.com/2015/06/18/late-artist-tetsuya-ishida-continues-to-impress
-with-nightmarish-paintings. Accessed 17 Apr 2017.
[5] 《有笑聲_低層的悲歌_石田徹也》，《好想藝術》，香港電台，香港，2014年7月14日。
[6] Edmund, Lee. "Arts preview: Tetsuya Ishida's artworks take a surreal look at Japanese life." SCMP. 6 Nov. 2013. SCMP Web. Accessed 17 Apr 2017.
[7] Biblioklept. "The Kafkaesque Paintings of Tetsuya Ishida." Biblioklept, 21 June. 2010, https://biblioklept.org/2010/06/21/the-kafkaesque-paintings-of-tetsuya-ishida/. Accessed 17 Apr 2017.
[8] "[SUB]URBAN—An Unauthorized Introduction To Tetsuya Ishida." Youtube, uploaded by WorkshopLoVi, 22 April 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwXOOZqNj0. Accessed 17 Apr 2017.
