Double Take

On Sept. 8, world-renowned mural artist John Pugh and author Kevin Bruce launched their new book with an illustrated talk and a reception honoring them both at the Taylor Hall mural.

Pugh (B.A., Art, ’83) has created more than 200 large-scale murals across the United States, New Zealand, and Taiwan and is considered to be the leading trompe l’oeil muralist in the world. The Murals of John Pugh, the first-ever collection of Pugh’s work, showcases 35 of his most famous pieces, discusses how he revitalized the trompe l’oeil (“trick of the eye”) genre into a vital mode of artistic expression, and illuminates the artist’s creative process from sketch to finished mural.

Pugh’s career began as a student at CSU, Chico with the famous Taylor Hall mural. He was honored as the College of Humanities and Fine Arts’ Distinguished Alum in 2003. He returned to Chico that summer and spent a week refurbishing the mural, much to the delight of Chicoans who visited him long into the hot summer nights as he repainted the wall.

Bruce is a writer and Stanford-educated art historian who wrote his master’s thesis on the works of John Pugh. He is currently chronicling the history of the contemporary mural.

Check out the Chico Statements feature about Pugh at www.csuchico.edu/pub/cs/fall_02/feature_02.html.