Thomas Baumgärtel (1960) - 5 DM Banane

Thomas Baumgärtel (1960), 5 DM Banana, 2020.

Two-color stencil graffiti (pochoir) on a 5-DM banknote (6.2 x 12.2 cm),
90 copies, signed, numbered and stamped.

Condition: Good condition. The banknote may have minor tears or creases, as these are used banknotes that have circulated in circulation.

Note: Images are exemplary – the edition number may vary.

Following Thomas Baumgärtel’s first banana pochoir in 2002, the 5-DM note edition appears 18 years later in 2020. The banknote shows the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin with an “embedded” Muse of the “Banana Sprayer” as stencil graffiti on the back of original, 1991-printed banknotes with Bettina von Arnims portrait on the front.

Biography
1985 to 1990: studied Free Art at the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne (FH Köln) and up to 1995 Psychology at the University of Cologne. Since 1986, the Cologne-based artist, under the pseudonym “Banana-Sprayer,” marks art sites in European cities as well as in New York and Moscow – to date over 4,000. From 1995 he developed the “Banana Pointillism” – painting with small stencil-sprayed bananas on canvas. Public square actions with large banana sculptures, such as “We love the High Church” at the main portal of Cologne Cathedral (1998); since 2002 project for Berlin: “We love the Union” at the Brandenburg Gate.