Incognito's anonymous art sale offers a chance to get a piece for €65
Lucinda Hall is the organiser of the Incognito art sale in aid of Jack and Jill; two of the pieces on sale
Fashion designer Helen Steele, Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones and Mark Feehily of Westlife are just some of the celebrities whose work features in this year’s Incognito auction in aid of the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation. Other contributors include the designers Paul and William Costelloe, singers Brian Kennedy, Mary Black and Eimear Quinn, and actress Norma Sheahan.
The Jack and Jill Foundation was established by Jonathan Irwin and Mary Ann O’Brien in memory of their son Jack, who suffered brain trauma shortly after birth and required dedicated home care until his passing in December 1997. It funds and delivers specialist home nursing and end-of-life care for children up to the age of six who have highly complex and life-limiting medical conditions.
Lucinda Hall, the former theatre producer who has curated Incognito since its foundation in 2017, is delighted with how it has progressed as an annual event. “When we started out, it seemed like a mad idea,” she says. “But it’s turned out to be a really good one. We sell out all the work each year, and we usually raise at least €200,000.”
All the money raised goes towards paying for nurses to provide care for children with medical conditions so their families can engage in activities outside the home. “If the parents have other children who need to get to football matches or hurling or whatever, then the nurse will come in and do the medication or exercise or whatever it is the child needs.
“To date, the Incognito initiative has paid for 47,000 hours of care in communities all over Ireland.”
This year, Incognito will feature 2,871 works by more than a thousand professional and amateur artists, all of whom have submitted a postcard-sized work, measuring 15 x 10cm. Preparing the work for auction is a laborious process, says Hall. "Four of us sit at a table, with six big plastic boxes full of submissions. The first person in the team takes each work out of the envelope and numbers it. Then they hand it to our photographer, who puts it on an easel and photographs it. Then he hands it to someone else, and they put a second number on the outside, to show it’s been processed. And then they pass it to me, and I put the name into the computer with the corresponding number. Imagine doing that nearly 3,000 times. We work eight hours a day, and after seven years, we’ve got it down from five days to four and a half.”
Hall estimates that her team views each artwork for at least five minutes, and they reckon the submissions are getting better every year. "The only limit on the artist is that their work has to fit on the postcard, after that they’re free to do whatever they choose. We take everything. Many people do drawings and paintings, but others do knitting and embroidery, or they might work with shells and other materials. We have one artist who does a little sculpture every year of two people holding a little sign saying ‘Pick me!’.”
Some of the high-profile contributors over the years have included Bono and the Edge of U2. “Would you believe we had one buyer who didn’t know who Bono was. And he wasn’t too young to know, it was just that somehow this guy had never heard of him. This happened at the exhibition in Dublin. We had to explain who Bono was, and how big a star he is.”
Bruce Springsteen is another rock star who has contributed work. In his case, he provided Incognito with three separate images in 2020, which naturally found their way onto many prospective buyers’ wishlists.
“We had this one fellow who was a huge Springsteen fan and had been to dozens of his concerts,” says Hall. “He took it very seriously. On the day, he found the Springsteen artwork he wanted had gone to someone else. Then – bang, crash - the second was gone as well. So he really thought he’d missed his chance at buying an original Bruce Springsteen. But he figured he should buy something anyway, to support the Jack and Jill Foundation, so he jumped on the only work that was available at that moment, and – can you believe this? – it was the third piece Springsteen had contributed. That was incredible. Brilliant.”
Not everyone who contributes work is quite as famous as Springsteen or U2. In the early years, many of those who contributed work were related to the children whose families benefit from the Jack and Jill Foundation’s support. But over time, most of the biggest talents in the Irish artists have rallied to the cause, submitting professional quality work that would hold its own in any context. Some of the better-known names this year include the Cork-born conceptual artist Dorothy Cross and the Royal Hibernian Academy stalwarts Mick O’Dea and Martin Gale.
Hall insists that all the participating artists are treated the same, however famous or obscure they may be. “There’s incredible talent out there,” she says, “and it’s not just from Ireland. As Incognito has become better known, we’ve had submissions from all over the world. This year, we’ve had entries from at least twelve different countries.
“What’s so nice about Incognito is that we can showcase these artists who might not otherwise have much opportunity to show their work. Every single thing sells. From 2017 to 2019 we had physical exhibitions, at galleries in Dublin and Cork, and those always sold out. When the pandemic hit in 2020, there was a bit of a panic at first, but we were very lucky in that we had this wonderful technical ability to go online. And what that has meant is that we now have a market all over the world.
“When we started Incognito, we thought it might make a small contribution to the Jack and Jill Foundation, but it’s turned into this monster. Everyone’s got on board, and it’s got more successful every year.”
- Registrations are open now, and the sale takes place on April 26
- Register your account at shop.incognito.ie/customer/account/create.
- This will allow you to add up to ten items of interest to your Wishlist in order of preference. The Incognito 2023 collection has been live since 31st March, and features 2,871 artworks, each priced at €65. The artists’ names will not be revealed until the collection is sold out.
- From 10am on 26th April, all the artworks are entered into a lottery system which matches each to a buyer who has placed it on their Wishlist. The system will make three attempts to match the buyer’s choices on their Wishlist, in order of preference.
- On the day, buyers will be informed by email of what artworks they have secured.
- Not everyone will succeed in acquiring an artwork on their Wishlist, but from 10am on 27th April, they may also bid on any artworks that have not already been sold.
- Once the entire collection has sold out, the artists’ names will be revealed.
- All orders will be packed and despatched by registered post within two weeks of the sale.
