Thomas Baumgärtel (1960) - 5 DM Banane

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

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

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

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

Biography
1985 to 1990 studied Free Art at the Fachhochschule Köln (FH Köln) and up to 1995 Psychology at the University of Cologne. Since 1986 the Cologne artist, under the pseudonym “Banana-Sprayer,” marks art locations in European cities as well as in New York and Moscow – to date over 4000. From 1995 he developed the “Banana Pointillism” – painting with small stencil-sprayed bananas on canvas. Actions in public squares with large banana sculptures such as “We love the High Church” at the main portal of the Cologne Cathedral (1998); since 2002 project for Berlin: “We love the Unification” at the Brandenburg Gate.