Real Estate, 2017 - 2019

Stéphane Ducret's Real Estate 2017-2019 series is part of his ongoing exploration of contemporary life, capitalism, and the changing meanings of artistic and social value. This particular series focuses on “trophy” artworks, examining how they have become vehicles for speculation, commodification, and status display in modern culture.

In this series, Ducret draws parallels between the art world and urban real estate, showing how properties and artworks are bought, traded, and valued more as investments or social representations than as sources of meaning or beauty.

The series reflects on how capital shapes environments — both physical and cultural, transforming creative expression into financial assets.

There is often a deliberate tension between superficial aesthetics and conceptual criticism, with vibrant or formal compositions masking deeper political undertones. This is particularly true in Painting Number 7, where Ducret installs David Hammons' famous African-American flag in the Oval Office of the White House.

Ducret's works in this series generally do not use a recognizable system. Instead, the paintings shift from abstract geometry to architectural forms, landscapes, and layered textures, following their sources and treated with colorful pictorial gestures.

In Real Estate, 2017-2019, Ducret explores cultural displacement and value systems. In doing so, he questions the institutional frameworks of art — galleries, markets, collectors — and how they reflect broader capitalist mechanisms.

In short, this series does not literally deal with architecture or property, but rather uses these ideas as metaphors for the way art and society are constructed, purchased, and inhabited.

The Real Estate series :

2017-2019 : Current page

2020-2021 : Explore

2025 : Explore

Drawings : Explore

Stéphane Ducret
Painting Number 4 (#gerhardrichter #imiknoebel)
2019
Oil and oilstick on canvas
208 x 188 x 4 cm | 81 ⅞ x 74 x 1 ¾ inches

Stéphane Ducret
Painting Number 6 (#brucenauman #andywarhol)
2019
Oil and oilstick on canvas
208 x 188 x 4 cm | 81 ⅞ x 74 x 1 ¾ inches