Gauntlet Gallery
What is Cleon Peterson’s piece called “The Nightmare (Yellow)”
Summary
A bright yellow screen print rendering Henry Fuseli's "The Nightmare" in Cleon Peterson's flat black-and-white vocabulary: a hulking, grinning incubus-demon crouches in silhouette atop a sleeping figure laid out on a patterned bed, with "Z Z Z" hovering at right. It distills Peterson's recurring obsessions with menace, vulnerability and the predator looming over the powerless into a single, instantly legible icon.
Why It Matters
The Nightmare is one of Peterson's most direct art-historical appropriations, swapping his usual classical Greek vase sources for Fuseli's 18th-century Gothic masterpiece while keeping his signature reductive silhouettes and high-contrast palette. The result reframes his core theme — the abuse of power and the brutality beneath civilization — at the most intimate scale: a single monster pinning a single sleeper. The Yellow colorway is the boldest and most graphic of the variant set, pushing the menace forward against an aggressive flat ground.
Collector Perspective
A 2021 screen print in a small edition of 16, hand-signed in pencil in the lower margin. As a tightly editioned colorway variant of a single composition, this sits in the scarcer, more sought-after tier of Peterson's print output, where the broader runs typically number in the hundreds. Demand concentrates on the most graphically striking colorways, and the yellow ground makes this an attention-grabbing wall piece. No hype needed: low edition count plus a recognizable art-historical reference give it durable collector appeal, though the niche colorway means buyers should expect thinner, less frequent secondary-market activity than Peterson's standard editions.
Historical Context
Created in 2021, this print belongs to Cleon Peterson's ongoing practice of recasting canonical images of power, violence and dread in his stripped-down black/white/red/gold idiom. Here he reaches past his usual classical and Hogarthian sources to Henry Fuseli's "The Nightmare" (1781), the foundational image of the demon-on-the-sleeper. Issued as one of several tightly limited colorway variants, it reflects the era in which Peterson — long established through gallery editions and his collaborations with Shepard Fairey — was producing compact, collectible screen-print sets built around a single charged motif.
FAQ
What does this print depict?
A grinning, hunched incubus-demon rendered as a flat black silhouette crouches over a sleeping figure lying on a four-legged patterned bed, with 'Z Z Z' floating at right. It is a direct homage to Henry Fuseli's 1781 painting 'The Nightmare,' translated into Cleon Peterson's stark graphic style.
How large is the edition?
The edition size is just 16, making this a small, scarce release among Peterson's prints.
Is it signed and numbered?
Yes. The print is hand-signed by Cleon Peterson in pencil in the lower margin; works in editions this small are issued signed and numbered.
What is the medium?
It is a hand-pulled screen print, dated 2021. This is the Yellow colorway, one of several variants of the composition.
Who is Cleon Peterson?
Cleon Peterson (b. 1973, Seattle) is an American artist known for stark, high-contrast scenes of violence, power and social conflict in a flat black/white/red/gold palette. He draws on classical Greek vase painting, Hogarth and street art, and is a frequent Shepard Fairey collaborator.
Related Works
About the Artist
Cleon Peterson (b. 1973, Seattle) is an American artist known for stark, high-contrast scenes of violence, power and social conflict, rendered in a flat, limited palette of black, white, red and gold. His chaotic compositions of fighting, clubbing and writhing figures expose the abuse of power and the brutality beneath civilization’s surface, drawing on classical Greek vase painting, Hogarth and street art. A frequent collaborator with Shepard Fairey, he shows internationally; his prints, sculptures and editions are widely collected in the urban-contemporary market.
Collecting Cleon Peterson at Gauntlet Gallery
Where can I buy authentic Cleon Peterson prints?
Gauntlet Gallery offers an extensive, authenticated inventory of Cleon Peterson prints and contemporary editions, with new drops added regularly. Browse the current collection at gauntlet.gallery.
How does Gauntlet Gallery ensure authenticity?
Gauntlet Gallery is built on curation, authenticity and transparency — every work is vetted and its provenance, edition details and condition are disclosed up front.
Does Gauntlet Gallery add new Cleon Peterson prints?
Yes. New drops are released regularly across Cleon Peterson and other leading artists; see gauntlet.gallery for the latest inventory.