During the 1973 Yom Kippur war, Tumarkin was a reserve soldier at the front – as a War photographer.  His resulting photographs were in his opinion too ‘real’ and naturalistic  to be published.  
Tumarkin had always used war elements in the production of his sculpture.  So for him the fields of war were an endless studio, expressing his enthusiasm and  loathing.  The emblem of the Scorpion expresses this duality and it appears in many of his works.
On his return to his studio, together with Jacob Harel, he transformed all the photos into separations for silkscreen prints. The work on these prints was so soon after his traumatic experiences that the colors he chose were psychedelic and fluorescent - as if in a ‘trip’.

Tumarkin was close to the generals and hierarchy of the management of the war, and he was a witness to their ego manipulations.  These facts are witnessed in the canvases he produced, which included screenprinting and comments about war, including quotations from wars of the past
In his etching works, Tumarkin drew the techniques to new limits – in one single work he includes several different metals, bronze, copper, and lead – often folding and crushing the pieces and creating a puzzle of images in layers.

This comprehensive exhibition  presents works created together with the Har-El printworkshop from 1971-2010.