This trail starts here

Sculptor, painter, and stage designer Igael Tumarkin was born in Dresden, Germany, and immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1935. He studied with Rudi Lehmann, a major pioneer of the Canaanite esthetic. He received the Israel Prize in Sculpture in 2004, and lives in Tel Aviv-Jaffa.

The composite structure Chichén Itzá Blue consists of a large ring set on a fourwheeled wagon, prevented from moving along its rails by obstacles. Chichén Itzá is a Mayan archaeological site in Mexico, with a great Tlatchli ball court. Resembling modern basketball, this postclassic game (c. 900 AD) was played by two teams who, without using their hands, tried to pass a solid rubber ball through their opponents’ stone ring, set vertically in the side walls. The finished ritualistic game of Tlatchli involved human sacrifice. Tumarkin was apparently inspired that while the people of Chichén Itzá were capable of making wheel-shapes for the ball game, they never applied this skill for transportation. The indigenous population was later easily defeated by a small number of technologically savvy Europeans. Chichén Itzá Blue is both a memorial to the Mayan culture and a tribute to our greater technological know-how. Tumarkin, who is sensitive to all kinds of social violence and injustice, makes a statement about the domination of one people over another.

Gift of the artist