Artwork Description
Assassination Blue Silkscreen Print by Dave Kinsey Hand-Pulled 4-Color on Off White Archival Fine Art Paper Limited Edition Pop Street Art Artwork.
2007 Signed & Numbered Limited Edition of 150 Artwork Size 18x24 Silkscreen Print by Dave Kinsey based on Auguste Rodin's The Thinker
"I created this piece in 2007, which is a commentary on the slow degradation of the education system in the United States—an assassination of the educational nourishment of the people and our society. This piece references Rodin’s “The Thinker” sculpture whose pose is based on deep thought and contemplation. Our schools, universities, and so forth are catalysts to greater change and progress and we as humans need to protect this at all costs." -Dave Kinsey, Two Thousand & Twenty-Three
Assassination Blue Silkscreen Print by Dave Kinsey
Assassination Blue is a 2007 silkscreen print by American artist Dave Kinsey, produced as a hand-pulled four color edition on off white archival fine art paper. Measuring 18 x 24 inches, the work was released as a signed and numbered limited edition of 150. Rooted firmly within Street Pop Art & Graffiti Artwork, this print reflects Kinsey’s long standing focus on social systems, power structures, and cultural erosion. The composition draws direct visual inspiration from Auguste Rodin’s sculpture The Thinker, a universally recognized symbol of contemplation and intellectual labor, while transforming it into a contemporary critique of institutional failure.
Visual Language and Symbolic Composition
The figure in Assassination Blue appears heavy, slumped, and burdened, rendered in deep blacks and layered blues that dominate the surface of the print. The blue tonal shift distinguishes this edition from its silver counterpart, adding a colder and more somber emotional register. The figure’s posture communicates exhaustion rather than reflection, suggesting that the act of thinking itself has been wounded. A thin red line descends from the head, cutting sharply through the otherwise restrained palette. This element functions as a symbolic injury rather than literal violence, emphasizing the idea of intellectual harm. The distressed textures in the background and on the figure reinforce a sense of gradual decay, echoing Kinsey’s interest in systems that erode slowly rather than collapse suddenly.
Conceptual Meaning and Cultural Context
Dave Kinsey has described this work as a commentary on the degradation of the education system in the United States, framing it as an assassination of educational nourishment and collective progress. Schools and universities are positioned as essential engines for social development, and their weakening is presented as a threat to future innovation and equity. By reinterpreting The Thinker, Kinsey links classical ideals of knowledge and reflection to contemporary anxieties surrounding access, funding, and cultural priorities. Within the broader scope of Street Pop Art & Graffiti Artwork, Assassination Blue stands as a measured yet urgent call to protect intellectual infrastructure. The work does not rely on shock alone, but instead uses restraint, symbolism, and historical reference to communicate its message with clarity and gravity, securing its place as a significant and enduring statement within Kinsey’s body of work.
