Yigal Tumarkin

Peter Martin Gregor Heinrich Hellberg (later Igael Tumarkin) was born in 1933 in Dresden, Saxony, Germany. His father, Martin Hellberg, was a German theater actor and director, and a son of a pastor. His Jewish mother, Berta Gurevitch, and his stepfather, Herzl Tumarkin, immigrated to then British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel) when he was two. Tumarkin served in the Israeli Navy. After completing his military service, he studied sculpture in Ein Hod, a village of artists near Mount Carmel, under Rudi Lehmann. His youngest son is the actor Yon Tumarkin. Tumarkin died at the age of 87 on 12 August 2021. His estate and the copyright to all his works are managed today by his sole heirs – his three children: Orna, Dor, and Yon Tumarkin.

Among Tumarkin's best known works are the Holocaust and Revival memorial in Rabin Square, Tel Aviv and his sculptures commemorate fallen soldiers in the Negev. Tumarkin was also an art theoretician and stage designer. In the 1950s, Tumarkin worked in East Berlin, Amsterdam, and Paris. Upon his return to Israel in 1961, he became a driving force behind the break from the charismatic monopoly of lyric abstraction there. Tumarkin created assemblages of found objects, generally with violent expressionist undertones and decidedly unlyrical color. His determination to "be different" influenced his younger Israeli colleagues. The furor generated around Tumarkin's works, such as the old pair of trousers stuck to one of his pictures, intensified the mystique surrounding him. One of his controversial works is a pig wearing phylacteries (or tefillin, small boxes containing scriptures).

Tumarkin created over 80 outdoor sculptures in Israel and around the world. 1962-68 "Panorama", concrete and steel, Arad, Israel 1962-69 "Age of Science", concrete and steel, Dimona 1963 "Vibrations A & B", concrete, Kiryat Yam and "Window to the Sea", concrete, Atlit 1964-65 "Monument for the Holocaust", concrete and steel, Nazareth 1966 "Peace Memorial", Hebron Road, Jerusalem 1967 “He Walked in the Fields” 1968 Arad Observatory sculpture 1968 Big Chief, tank assemblage painted, Kiryat Shmona 1969-71 "War and Peace", steel and stone, Ramat Gan 1970 "Keystone Gate", painted steel, Jerusalem 1970 "Homage to Dürer, painted steel, Haifa 1971 "Homage to Jerusalem", Givat Shapira 1971 Sculpture Garden, 61 Weizmann Street, Holon 1971-75 "Monument to the Holocaust and Revival", corten and glass, Tel Aviv 1972 "Happenings and Homage to Kepler", concrete and painted steel, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv; "Sundial Garden", concrete, Ashkelon; and "Monument to the Fallen", concrete painted white and steel, Jordan Valley 1972-73 "Airport Monument", painted steel, Lod 1973 "Challenge to the Sun", Ramot Alon, Jerusalem 1986 "Chichen Itzma", Kiryat Menahem, Jerusalem 1986 Pisgat Zeev, Jerusalem 1989 Homage to Robert Capa, Pozoblanco, Spain 1989 La Liberte, Bordeaux, France 1991 Bertolt Brecht, Berlin Museum Garden 1992 "Jerusalem – Three Faiths", Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 1993 Semaphore, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 1993 My Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Hakone Open Air Museum, Japan 1994–96 The Sculpture Garden of Belvoir (Kochav HaYarden) 1997 Memorial for Yitzhak Rabin, Ramat Gan Museum 2000 Abu Nabut Garden, Jaffa