Gauntlet Gallery
What is Cleon Peterson’s piece called “The Marcher (Gold)”
Summary
The Marcher (Gold) renders a single nude male figure in solid metallic gold against a bare white ground, striding forward with a club or bat shouldered behind his head, mid-march and ready to strike. Stripped to one flat silhouette, it distills Cleon Peterson's career-long subject — the lone aggressor advancing through a civilization built on brute force — into an austere, almost heraldic emblem of menace.
Why It Matters
Most of Peterson's prints are crowded, chaotic battlefields of clubbing, writhing bodies; The Marcher does the opposite, isolating one purposeful figure so the threat becomes iconic rather than narrative. The contrapposto stride and clean profile draw directly on classical Greek vase painting and antique sculpture, recasting the timeless heroic male nude as a faceless instrument of violence. The gold colorway pushes this further — it gilds the aggressor, equating power and brutality with something precious and worshipped, a pointed commentary that runs through Peterson's End of Empire body of work.
Collector Perspective
This is the gold variant of The Marcher, a 2021 screen print in a very small edition of just 13, hand-signed and numbered by the artist in pencil along the lower margin (visible here as a deckle-edged sheet with signature lower right and edition fraction lower left). An edition this tight sits well below Peterson's typical 100–200 print runs, placing it in the scarce/limited end of his market. Single-figure gold pieces have strong wall presence and read as a desirable collector variant, but the thin edition means secondary-market appearances are infrequent and pricing depends heavily on condition and the strength of the metallic ink. A focused buy for an established Peterson or street-art collector rather than an entry-level purchase.
Historical Context
Made in 2021, The Marcher belongs to the mature phase of Cleon Peterson's print practice, after the international recognition built through his End of Empire exhibitions and his frequent collaborations with Shepard Fairey. By this point Peterson had refined his signature flat-silhouette language — black, white, red and gold figures locked in cycles of power and abuse — and increasingly produced tight micro-editions and colorway variants like this gold version alongside larger standard runs.
FAQ
What does The Marcher (Gold) depict?
A single nude male figure in flat metallic gold, striding forward with a club or bat carried behind his head, caught mid-march in a threatening, ready-to-strike pose against a plain white ground.
How large is the edition?
Just 13 — a very small, limited run, well below Cleon Peterson's typical print editions.
Is it signed and numbered?
Yes. It is hand-signed and numbered in pencil by the artist in the lower margin of the deckle-edged sheet, with the edition number at lower left and the signature at lower right.
What is the medium?
A screen print, produced in 2021, in this gold colorway variant.
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, drawing on classical Greek vase painting, Hogarth and street art, and a frequent collaborator of Shepard Fairey.
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.