Hasta La Ideas

Fancy picking up a Julian Opie for £40? Or how about a Gerhard Richter or Anish Kapoor? The opportunity is here, if only you know how to spot it.

RCA Secret, the Royal College of Art in London’s annual fundraising exhibition, launches this Friday. The premise behind the exhibition is simple: 2,400 postcard-sized artworks are available to buy, all at just £40 each. What makes things interesting is that in amongst works by students at the RCA (who of course may go on to be art superstars in the future) are a number of paintings by famous artists. As all the works are displayed anonymously, the audience has to rely on the quality of its artistic eye to judge whether they are snapping up a painting worth thousands (previous postcards by Damien Hirst and Peter Doig sold at auction picked up over £15K and a stunning £42K respectively) or one worth, um, £40.

Shown here is a sneak preview of some of the postcards from this year’s show. We of course don’t know who they’re by, but Yoko Ono, Cornelia Parker, Grayson Perry, Lawrence Weiner and John Baldessari have also contributed to this year’s exhibition, amongst many other famous names.

The full set of postcards can be viewed at rca.ac.uk/secret from Friday, as well as in the flesh at the RCA. You must register on the website to take part in the sale of the postcards, which will take place on Saturday November 21. Sales will be on a first come, first served basis, so expect an early start. There is also a raffle for the chance to win a place at the front of the sales queue this year, with tickets on sale at the exhibition.

All proceeds from the sale will go to the RCA Fine Art Student Award, which supports student artists during their training at the RCA. More info at rca.ac.uk/secret.