Art is bananas

[sister_luck]

Galleries and museums in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and also in New York, London and Paris have been decorated by Thomas Baumgärtel, also known as the Bananensprayer with a two-colour stencil of a banana. Of course, he was not the first person to introduce the banana into the world of art - that was done by Andy Warhol on the cover of the first album by the Velvet Underground. At first, the owners of the galleries weren't happy, but then the spraypainted banana became a badge of honour not unlike the stars awarded to good restaurants. Gallery owners desperately wanted to be recognized and sanctioned by the banana. Fakes cropped up and not all the bananas looked the same.

Behind the cut, you can see a photo of a photo of a graffiti banana with a difference.





I don't know whether this is a real Baumgärtel, but it's a good comment on the banana fad. The sticker next to it reads: "wie geht's weiter?" which can be roughly translated as 'where will this lead?' or 'how will this go on?'. I can't even remember where the original picture was taken.

Have you seen the banana anywhere? I think I remember seeing it in New York, but I can't be sure.


cross-posted to salon_virtuel

Comments

[candlelightfrot.livejournal.com]

No bananas here in the Midwest. One of my neighbors has a banana tree, but it never produces; winter keeps killing it back. We do have a few murals around town, like this one of Red Skelton, who was born here.

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