Thomas Baumgärtel (1960) - 5 DM Banane

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

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

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

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

Biography
1985 to 1990: Studied Fine Arts at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences (FH Köln) and until 1995 Psychology at the University of Cologne. Since 1986 the Cologne artist has marked places of art in European cities as well as in New York and Moscow under the pseudonym “Banana Sprayer” – to date over 4000. From 1995 he developed the “Banana Pointillism” – painting with small stencil‑sprayed bananas on canvas. Public actions in squares with large banana sculptures such as “We love the High Church” at the main portal of Cologne Cathedral (1998); since 2002 projects for Berlin: “We love the Union” at the Brandenburg Gate.