Henry Persche’s Tiny Kelly

an ellsworth kelly painting on a 4 inch scrap of canvas, a fat yellow square, plus another yellow brushstroke next to it for some reason, sandwiched between thinner brushstrokes of blue on top and red on the bottom, a gift fo the artist's longtime studio assistant henry perche, now called a study and for sale at phillips in may 2025
Ellsworth Kelly, Study for Blue Yellow Red V, 1987, 4 1/2 x 4 in., oil on canvas, selling at Phillips 14 May 2025 [update: or not]

You get a taste of that Ellsworth Kelly brushstroke, and suddenly it’s all you want and all you look for, and you’re desperate for another fix, even if it’s a literal scrap of canvas.

ellsworth kelly painting in three horizontal canvases, stacked: narrow blue, square yellow, and slightly less narrow red, from 1987, some day going to the nga, but not yet, apparently
Ellsworth Kelly, Blue Yellow Red V, 1954/1987, 246 x 190 cm, oil on three canvases, the Meyerhoff Collection, promised to the National Gallery as recently as 2020, but they 404’d the slideshow, which feels ominous. but it could be nothing.

This extraordinary 4.5 x 4 inch work is being sold as Study for Blue Yellow Red V, presumably after the number of brushstrokes it contains. The way it has pencil marks along the edge where it was cut off. The way that patch of yellow feels extraneous but is obviously not a dealbreaker, because the work is signed an assigned a spot in the artist’s catalogue raisonné (EK 761B). The way it references a monumental, triple canvas, double-dated painting which the Meyerhoffs are hanging onto for dear life. The way it was acquired directly from the artist by Henry Persche; 1987 was the 20th year since he began working as his studio assistant—was this an anniversary gift? Or just a little something to match the rug?

an ellsworth kelly drawing of a 26 yo white guy with short dark hair and deep charcoal eyes, a lightly sketched torso in a v-neck sweater, a more heavily sketched out crotch in tight pants, legs spread, combat boot top exposed on his left foot, reading a book in an otherwise blank page. the subject henry persche would soon be kelly's studio assistant around the time of this 1967 drawing, which is now in the brooklyn museum
Ellsworth Kelly, Henry Persche, graphite on paper, Feb. 7, 1967, 23 x 29 in., a gift from Persche to the Brooklyn Museum

Persche was 26 in February 1967 when he lounged for Kelly for this sketched portrait. He donated it, along with three other drawings, to the Brooklyn Museum in 2010. The rug, from a declared edition of 20, of which only four were ever realized, he also got in 1967-68. He only sold it in 2019.