Thomas Baumgärtel (1960) - 5 DM Banane

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

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

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

Note: Illustrations exemplary – the edition number may vary.

After Thomas Baumgärtel's first Banana stencil in 2002, the 5-DM note edition appears 18 years later in 2020. The banknote depicts the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin with an embedded Musa of the “Banana Sprayer” as stencil graffiti on the back of original notes printed in 1991, featuring Bettina von Arnim’s portrait on the front.

Biography
1985 to 1990 studied Free Fine Art at the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne and, until 1995, Psychology at the University of Cologne. Since 1986, the Cologne artist 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. Actions on public squares with large banana sculptures such as “We love the High Church” at the main portal of Cologne Cathedral (1998); since 2002 he has been projecting for Berlin: “We love the Unification” at the Brandenburg Gate.