From 8 May to 10 July 2026, the Lower Rhine will become a stage for art: Thomas Baumgärtel, known as the ‘Banana Sprayer’, is celebrating the 40th anniversary of his spray-painted banana with a large-scale art project. Under the motto “Freedom for Art”, the artist, who hails from Rheinberg in the Lower Rhine region, is transforming his home region into an exhibition landscape, thereby creating one of the cultural events of the year.
Image above: Claudia-Schiffer-Banana, 2026, Spray paint on a billboard, 165 x 120 cm, WVZ-Nr. 3102
To mark the 40th anniversary of the Spraybanane and as a tribute to his home region, the Lower Rhine, Thomas Baumgärtel organised a Lower Rhine exhibition tour in May, June and July 2026, visiting 40 art venues under the motto ‘Freedom of Art’. This means that each venue is assigned one of his groups of works, which, where possible, relates to the collection or history of the location. Visitors are sent on an art tour through the Lower Rhine region – on foot, by bike or by car – to see how many art venues there are in the Lower Rhine region and to take in Baumgärtel’s entire body of work.
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’s work, highlighting just how diverse and extensive his oeuvre is.
With his ‘Spraybanane’, Thomas Baumgärtel has created an iconic symbol that stands for artistic freedom, diversity of opinion and cultural openness around the world.
The Lower Rhine Tour now reveals just how much more lies behind this symbol – a vibrant, multi-layered and often surprising body of work that has evolved over four decades. Alongside his world-renowned banana project, through which he has been marking museums, galleries and significant art venues around the globe with the ‘Excellence Banana’ since 1986, Baumgärtel has created a wide-ranging artistic oeuvre – spanning painting, graphic art and installation to political art, street art and performative actions.
These are the 40 stops:
Bedburg-Hau (Schloss Moyland), Brüggen (Burg Brüggen), Emmerich (PAN Kunstforum Niederrhein), Geldern (KUHnstTurm Niederrhein e.V.), 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 e.V.), Kleve (Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Koekkoek-Haus, Museum Forum Arenacum), Kranenburg (Museum Katharinenhof, Haus van der Grinten), Krefeld (Heidefeld & Partner, Kunst und Krefeld e.V.), Moers (Die Röhre KG), Moers-Meerbeck (Kirche St. Barbara), Mönchengladbach (Christian Löhrl), Mönchengladbach-Reydt (Christian Köhler), Nettetal (Alte Fabrik), Neuss (Kunstinitiative Wurzeln und Flügel e.V.), Rheinberg (Altes Rathaus, Kulturinitiative Schwarzer Adler e.V., Fischer’s Fotogalerie, Bananenturm Orsoy), Viersen (Narrenmühle Dülken, Blaubeermuffinbaum), Weeze (Schloss Wissen), Wesel (LVR-Niederrheinmuseum, Städtisches Museum), Wetten (Haus Te Gesselen), Xanten (SiegfriedMuseum, Stiftsmuseum, KulturKirche Mörmter)
These are the 40 groups of works:
Old Masters Overpaintings, Apocalypse, Exhibition Posters, Mountains of Bananas, Banana Wisdom, Pictures/Pictures of Freedom, Bridge Pictures, Colourful Bananas, German Reunification, Editions, Europe Block, Felt Works, Photographic Works, Fruit Pictures, Early Works, Stuffed Bananas, Yellow Banana Pointillism, German Urban Pop Art, Gold Pieces, Grey Pictures, Holocaust Series, Legal Block/Criminal Cases, Kinetic Objects, Boxes and Crates, Kings of Hearts, Artist Bananas, The Art Market is a Joke, Landscapes, Life is …, Medical Block, Metamorphoses, MetaSpraygrams, Objects, Billboards, Political Works, Portraits, Projects in Public Spaces, Religion Block, Stencils, Discs, Signs, Spades and Shovels, Spray Paintings on Metal, Spray Banana at Art Venues, Spraygrams, Stem Pictures, Bags, Environmental Protection Series, Packaging Cartons, What happens to Banana.
WHEN?
Grand opening: Friday, 8. May 2026 at 7 pm in Niederrheinischen Museum Kevelaer
Exhibition dates: Friday, 8. May until Friday, 10. July 2026
Grand Finissage: Friday, 10. July at 7:30 pm in Museum Kurhaus Kleve.
