The 613
Why six hundred
and thirteen.
613 is תרי״ג המצוות — the commandments of the Torah. He set it as the size of the body of work he meant to complete, and spent four decades getting there.
The count grew while he worked, and his own documents record it growing: 400 works in the price list of 2015, around 550 by the catalogue of 2016, 613 by 2021.
The name he worked under carries the same idea. Tordjman comes from מְתוּרגְּמָן — the translator, the one who carries meaning from one side to the other. A bridge. It is in the mark he drew for himself, too: the numerals stand on an arch.
My canvas is a screen and my materials are coloured particles of light.
Yoel Tordjman, artist statement, from his own catalogue.
What is in this archive, and what is not
The family archive currently holds 486 catalogued records. Of those, 299 have been matched to an archival master file and 187 have not yet been located. A further 180 works found in the archive have been confirmed by the family as his, and are being catalogued now.
So 486 is not the complete body of work, and this store does not present it as such. Reconstructing the full record is ongoing, and the numbers above will change as it proceeds.