REAL ESTATE (2017 - 2021)

In 2017, Stéphane Ducret returns from a year hiatus from art making with the Real Estate series. The results of his retreat from creation is a new body of work that displays contemporary masterpieces combined in imaginary settings, in which he creates new narratives, disconnected from their original context.

Stéphane Ducret
Painting Number 3 (#MarkGrotjahn #Gerhard Richter)
2019
Oil, pencil and oilstick on canvas
208 x 188 x 4 cm | 81 ⅞ x 74 x 1 ¾ inches

Stéphane Ducret
Painting Number 10 (#PeterDoig #JonasWood #JheronimusBosch)
2020
Oil on linen
208 x 188 x 3,5 cm | 81 ⅞ x 74 x 1 ⅓ inches
Private collection, Geneva

In the Real Estate series, Stéphane Ducret explores the relationship between reality and imagination, between knowledge and recognition, blurring limits of perception.

Contemporary masterpieces are combined in imaginary settings in which Stéphane Ducret creates new narratives, disconnected from their original context, setting up a complex and highly referenced multi-sided imaginary dialogue, in which he takes up and develops the discourse of the artists he quotes.

Stéphane Ducret
Painting Number 1 (#SterlingRuby #JeanRoyere)
2017
Oil and oilstick on canvas
208 x 188 x 4 cm | 81 ⅞ x 74 x 1 ¾ inches
Private collection, Pully

Stéphane Ducret
Painting Number 2 (#ChristopherWool #LuisBarragan)
2018
Oil and oilstick on canvas
208 x 188 x 4 cm | 81 ⅞ x 74 x 1 ¾ inches
Private collection, Founex

The selection of these ‘subjects’ corresponds to a perfectly assumed strategic reflection in which meanings and questions intertwine and confront each other both in content and in formal research.

Stéphane Ducret
Drawing Number 9 (#ChristopherWool #MarkGrotjahn)
2021
Charcoal and pencil on Daler Rowney paper
32 x 25 cm | 12 ⅔ x 9 ⅞ inches
Private collection, Geneva

Stéphane Ducret
Drawing Number 10 (#PeterDoig #JonasWood)
2021
Oilstick and collage on Arches paper
76 x 57 cm | 29 ⅞ x 22 ⅓ inches
Private collection, Geneva

Stéphane Ducret
Drawing Number 19 (#DavidHammons)
2021
Pencil and collage on Arches paper
57 x 47 cm | 22 ⅓ x 18 ½ inches
Private collection, Geneva

Stéphane Ducret
Drawing Number 28 (#JakeAndDinosChapman)
2021
Oilstick, China Marker, pencil and collage on Arches paper
27 x 21,5 cm | 10 ⅝ x 8 ½ inches
Private collection, Geneva

Stéphane Ducret
Drawing Number 25 (#ChristopherWool #JonasWood)
2021
Oilstick, China Marker, pencil and collage on Arches paper
32 x 25 cm | 12 ⅝ x 9 ⅞ inches
Private Collection, Geneva

Stéphane Ducret
Drawing Number 26 (#ChristopherWool #JonasWood)
2021
Oilstick, China Marker, pencil and collage on Arches paper
32 x 25 cm | 12 ⅝ x 9 ⅞ inches
Private Collection, Geneva

Stéphane Ducret
Drawing Number 23 (#PeterDoig #JonasWood)
2021
Oilstick, pencil and collage on Daler Rowney paper
26,9 x 20,9 cm | 10 ⅝ x 8 ¼ inches
Private collection, Lausanne

Stéphane Ducret
Drawing Number 33 (#PaulMcCarthy)
2021
Oilstick and China Marker on Daler Rowney paper
42 x 29,7 cm | 16 ½ x 11 ¾ inches
Private collection, Geneva

Stéphane Ducret
Drawing Number 34 (#PaulMcCarthy)
2021
Oilstick and China Marker on Daler Rowney paper
42 x 29,7 cm | 16 ½ x 11 ¾ inches
Private collection, Lisbon

Solo Show Number 1, Gowen Contemporary, Geneva

Stéphane Ducret (Swiss, 1970) is graduated from the Ecole Supérieure d'Art Visuel in Geneva. After spending extensive periods of time in New York, Buenos Aires and Porto, he currently lives and works in Geneva.

In 2017, after going through a long creative crisis during which he refrains from painting and exhibiting, Ducret renews his artistic practice and starts his series entitled REAL ESTATE whereby he appropriates and recomposes contemporary masterpieces by placing them, disconnected from their original context, in imaginary settings in which he creates new narratives.

To date, the REAL ESTATE series is composed of 10 paintings on canvas, all measuring 208 x 188 cm (81 ⅞ x 74 in.). The titles quote the names of the authors of the 'borrowed' works, along with the hashtag symbol, as if they were notifications on social networks. As for the title of the series, it refers to real estate but also to the ‘Estate of the Artist’, a term universally used by the art world to designate the heritage of the artist.

While questioning the relationship between reality and imagination, between knowledge and recognition, Ducret explores the role and status of the artist as well as his relationship to the art market. By embodying the audience, the collector and the art maker at the same time, he sets up a kind of multi-sided imaginary dialogue in which he takes up and develops the discourse of the artists he quotes. The selection of these ‘subjects’ corresponds to a perfectly assumed strategic reflection in which meanings and questions intertwine and confront each other both in content and in formal research.

Solo Show Number 1 (February 10th - April 24th, 2021), will be the first exhibition of Ducret’s REAL ESTATE series coinciding with his first solo exhibition at Gowen Contemporary Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland.

The work of Stéphane Ducret was exhibited at the Forum d’Art Contemporain, Sierre; the Bronx Museum Of The Arts, New York; the Fondation de l’Hermitage, Lausanne; the Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires; the Centre Pasquart, Bienne and was awarded by the Leenaards Foundation. His works are part of the permanent collection of Banque cantonale vaudoise; Musée de Pully; Fonds cantonal d’art contemporain of Geneva and Fonds municipal d'art contemporain of Geneva.

Dates
March 12 - April 24.