If you’ve seen Chico State’s new arts and humanities building lately, you’ve probably noticed a familiar face – the iconic Academe mural. It covered the northeast corner of Taylor Hall from 1981 until 2014, when the building was demolished to make room for "Taylor 2."
Now, original artist John Pugh and the mural are back. The Chico State alumnus has been working on campus for the last two weeks to recreate Academe. NSPR’s Sarah Bohannon climbed the artists’ scaffolding to ask him a few questions while he worked on the recreation earlier this week. Here are four things the artist had to say about the mural that you may not know.
1. Pugh is not recreating Academe completely on-site. While the old mural still existed, Pugh traced it and collected color samples. He took those back to his large studio in Truckee, where he and a team of artists reconstructed the piece. Once finished the mural was broken down into five foot strips and brought to Chico State, as Pugh explains.
2. The demolition of the original mural was not a surprise to Pugh. He knew about it long before there was any controversy about the decision, he said. In fact, Pugh said he helped talk to Chico State into not preserving the original wall. He explains why.
3. Academe is beloved on the Chico State campus. So much that when the mural was destroyed a lot of it was kept by the university, including pieces – like a section containing Pugh’s signature – and some that were cored from the wall to be distributed to the public. Since being back on campus, Pugh has had a warm welcome. Many community members have stopped at the mural site and showed their appreciation of piece, he said.
4. Academe is a tromp l’oeil (trick of the eye) style mural. This style makes a painting look like it’s three-dimensional. Pugh said for him it’s not the illusion in itself that is important, but how it connects people to the artwork.
Pugh has almost completed the new installation. He expects to be working on it until Saturday, Nov. 14.