Thomas Baumgärtel on tour of the Lower Rhine in 2026 – Grand opening at the Kevelaer Museum

The Lower Rhine region will become a vibrant stage for art in 2026: Thomas Baumgärtel, known worldwide as the Banana Sprayer, is celebrating the 40th anniversary of his spray-painted banana with a massive art project. Under the motto "Freedom for Art," the artist, originally from Rheinberg on the Lower Rhine, will transform his home region into a unique exhibition landscape, creating one of the most spectacular cultural events of the year.

The tour kicks off with a vernissage on Friday, May 8, 2026, at 7 p.m. in the Lower Rhine Museum Kevelaer, Hauptstraße 18, 47623 Kevelaer, and marks the start of a special exhibition format: 40 groups of works – 40 locations – 40 years of art history.

The Lower Rhine Museum in Kevelaer is presenting two groups of works by Thomas Baumgärtel: "German Urban Pop Art" and "Grey Paintings". Both are visually distinct from each other, but both are integral parts of his creative output.

Baumgärtel coined the term "German Urban Pop Art" to define his art as the fusion of street art, political intervention, and pop-cultural imagery within the German context. For him, it is art in public spaces that communicates directly, provokes, and comments on social power structures, freedom, and cultural policy. His iconic banana symbolizes freedom, subversive critique, artistic independence, and the dialogue between high culture and the street.

The series "Grey Images" presents a consistently reduced, monochrome-grey visual language in which photographic source material from the city, media, politics, everyday life, and private spheres is deliberately emptied and distorted. By overpainting in grey, Baumgärtel levels hierarchies of meaning—cathedral, stadium, demonstration, beach, portrait, or interior appear as equal fragments of a collective visual world. The series addresses perception, memory, and media reality, and simultaneously functions as a critical commentary on sensory overload and the interchangeability of images in urban and media spaces.

The Lower Rhine Museum Kevelaer, located in the heart of the pilgrimage town of Kevelaer, is one of the largest museum buildings on the Lower Rhine and is therefore closely linked to the region's folklore, cultural history, and artistic heritage. Thomas Baumgärtel's works will be on display until August 30th. A comprehensive educational program complements the exhibition.

A celebration of art

From May to July 2026, 40 museums, galleries, and cultural institutions  will simultaneously present 40 groups of works spanning four decades of his career. Each venue will showcase a different facet of the artist, highlighting the diversity and breadth of his oeuvre.

With his spray-painted banana, Thomas Baumgärtel has created an iconic symbol that stands worldwide for freedom of art, diversity of opinion and cultural openness .

The Lower Rhine tour now reveals just how much more lies behind this symbol – a vibrant, multifaceted, and often surprising body of work that has been created over four decades. Alongside his world-renowned banana project, with which he since 1986 , Baumgärtel has created a broad artistic oeuvre – from painting, graphic art, and installation to political art, street art, and performance art.

A journey of discovery through art and region

At each of the 40 exhibition venues, visitors can expect something different: diverse groups of works, themes, materials, and artistic approaches. This creates an extraordinary journey of discovery through Baumgärtel's oeuvre – and simultaneously through the cultural landscape of the Lower Rhine.

From museum to museum, a comprehensive picture of the artist, who was born in the Lower Rhine region, gradually emerges.

A tribute to the Lower Rhine

The Lower Rhine Tour 2026 is both a tribute to the artist's homeland and an invitation to rediscover the Lower Rhine as a vibrant cultural landscape. With the support of Geißler Bentler (Bonn), the Goch Museum , and numerous partners from the arts and culture sector, a project is being created that will elevate the region to one of Germany's most exciting art destinations by 2026. The project's patron is Mona Neubaur, Minister for Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

An artistic highlight that makes the Lower Rhine visible far beyond the region.

These are the 40 stations:  

Bedburg-Hau (Museum Schloss Moyland), Brüggen (Burg Brüggen), Emmerich (PAN Kunstforum Niederrhein), Geldern (KUHnstTurm Niederrhein eV), Goch (Museum Goch), Grevenbroich (Museum der Niederrheinischen Seele – Villa Erckens und Versandhalle), Kalkar (Städtisches Museum, Studio 20.21, Historisches Rathaus), Kamp-Lintfort (Schirrhof, Schürmann 8Meter20, Kunsthaus Bassier), Kevelaer (Niederrheinisches Museum Kevelaer eV), Kleve (Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Koekkoek-Haus, Museum Forum Arenacum), Kranenburg (Museum Katharinenhof, Haus van der Grinten), Krefeld (Heidefeld & Partner, Kunst und Krefeld eV), Moers (Die Röhre KG), Moers-Meerbeck (Kirche St. Barbara), Mönchengladbach (Christian Löhrl), Mönchengladbach-Reydt (Christian Köhler), Nettetal (Alte Factory), Neuss (Art Initiative Roots and Wings eV), Rheinberg (Old Town Hall, Cultural Initiative Black Eagle eV, Fischer's Photo Gallery, Banana Tower Orsoy), Viersen (Fool's Mill Dülken, Blueberry Muffin Tree), Weeze (Wissen Castle), Wesel (LVR Lower Rhine Museum, Municipal Museum), Wetten (Haus Te Gesselen), Xanten (Siegfried Museum, Collegiate Church Museum, Mörmter Cultural Church)

These are the 40 work groups: 

Old Masters Oversprays, Apocalypse, Exhibition Posters, Banana Mountains, Banana Wisdoms, Pictures/Images of Freedom, Bridge Pictures, Colorful Bananas, German Unity, Editions, Europe Block, Felt Works, Photographic Works, Fruit Pictures, Early Works, Stuffed Bananas, Yellow Banana Pointillism, German Urban Pop Art, Gold Pieces, Gray Pictures, Holocaust Series, Legal Block/Criminal Cases, Kinetic Objects, Boxes and Crates, Kings of Hearts, Artist Bananas, The Art Market is Bananas, Landscapes, Life is…, Medical Block, Metamorphoses, MetaSpraygrams, Objects, Poster Murals, Political Works, Portraits, Projects in Public Space, Religion Block, Stencils, Discs, Signs, Spades and Shovels, Spray Works on Metal, Spray Banana at Art Sites, Spraygrams, Stencil Pictures, Bags, Environmental Protection Series, Packaging Cartons, What Happens to Banana.

Further information: www.40jahrebananensprayer.de

Joachim Rodriguez y Romero

Owner and Managing Director of Kunstplaza . Publicist, editor, and passionate blogger in the fields of art, design, and creativity since 2011. Graduated with a degree in web design from university (2008). Further developed creative techniques through courses in freehand drawing, expressive painting, and theatre/acting. Profound knowledge of the art market gained through years of journalistic research and numerous collaborations with key players and institutions in the arts and culture sector.

www.kunstplaza.de

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