A famous artist created an iconic mural right next to the Sacramento Freeway. You’ll want to take a detour

Unique is a series from the Sacramento Bee covering the moments, landmarks and personalities that make life in the Sacramento area so special.

When Gioia Fonda drives down Highway 50, she often catches a glimpse of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District building.

But it’s the mural surrounding SMUD headquarters that captivates her. The walls are filled with bold, floating shapes in bright orange, yellow and blue tones on a white background.

It resembles a “torn paper collage,” said Fonda, an art professor at Sacramento City College. Even from a distance, speeding down the freeway, the mural sparkles.

“You can see that there are shapes and reflections, but you can’t really tell what the shapes are,” she said. “It’s not a specific piece of architecture or boat or anything like that. It’s just suggested.”

One day, Fonda decided to get closer and swapped her car for her bicycle. As she approached the building, she discovered that it was not just any mural, but a mosaic made of glass tiles.

She later learned something else that amazed her: The mural was by internationally known artist Wayne Thiebaud. He spent much of his career in the Sacramento area and, like Fonda, taught at Sacramento City College.

Thiebaud completed the mural, titled “Water City,” in 1959. The SMUD building at 6201 S Street is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

However, Fonda did not immediately recognize the mural as a work of art by Thiebaud.

He is known for his still lifes of cakes, pies and sweets and often spoke of his work as representing American culture. The artist famously painted with a knife as if he were spreading icing.

“Water City,” on the other hand, is abstract, “right on the border of representational,” said Fonda, and thus shows Thiebaud’s artistic range.

“It shows what he was experimenting with before his other work gained traction, which I think is an interesting moment in an artist’s career,” she said.

Thiebaud died at his home in Land Park on Christmas Day 2021. He was 101. In his early years, he apprenticed as an animator under Walt Disney before embarking on “a long and distinguished career as one of the most popular American artists since World War II,” The Bee wrote after his death.

How an abstract mural found a home in the SMUD building

At age 38, Thiebaud, then teaching at Sacramento City College, was commissioned to paint the mural. It is the artist’s largest public art installation and measures 15 feet tall and 250 feet wide.

The late Leonard Blackford, founder of Sacramento-based Dreyfuss + Blackford Architecture, was friends with Thiebaud and contacted him. The architects originally planned to clad the building in white marble, but Blackford was “excited” by the idea, according to Peter Saucerman, a former partner in the firm.

Blackford figured that a glass mural would be less expensive than a marble mural, and the building would include artwork that was typical of the area.

“That made it a no-brainer,” Saucerman said in an interview with The Bee in June. “It was a great idea and saved a little bit of money. It was a win-win all around.”

When Thiebaud’s design was given the green light, he enlarged the copy. In a large hall and in the auditorium of Sacramento City College, he projected the sketch and outlined each unit of color, according to The Bee’s archives.

Then a manufacturing company in Italy matched detailed tiles to a color palette approved by Thiebaud. The company shipped the tiles to Sacramento.

“Since their arrival this fall, the patterned leaves have been mortared under the watchful eyes of Thiebaud and the architects,” said a 1959 Bee article.

The original watercolor sketch remained in the lobby of SMUD, where visitors can still admire it.

“The mural is a striking, iconic part of the Sacramento art scene,” said Gamaliel Ortiz, a spokesman for SMUD. “It’s in all these great museums. SMUD is proud to have its artwork as a highly visible part of SMUD’s own iconic building.”

“Water City” wasn’t Thiebaud’s first mural — nor his first to be exhibited in the capital. For the 1954 California State Fair, according to the Bee archives, Thiebaud created a “cheerful, wacky mural” near the entrance to the Arts Building on the fairgrounds, which was then located on Stockton Boulevard.

In the 1950s, Thiebaud experimented with abstraction, said Fred Dalkey, a friend of Thiebaud’s who also worked at Sacramento City College. Thiebaud was influenced by notable abstract painters such as Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning, Dalkey told The Bee last month.

The mural was restored in 2019.

This was part of an extensive $72 million renovation of the SMUD building. Workers cleaned tiles and repaired cracks “to return it to its original condition,” Ortiz said.

“Even Thiebaud came by and inspected it. He was 98 years old and praised SMUD’s excellent work in restoring his artwork,” Ortiz said.

Sacramento residents see themselves represented in the mural

As an artist, Fonda could identify with Thiebaud’s story, and in her own work she has turned more to public art in recent years.

Early in his career, Thiebaud was rejected by several galleries before finding one that would represent his work. Since Sacramento has a smaller market for paintings than a larger city, public art offered an opportunity, Fonda said.

“I can imagine that this was a pretty significant assignment for him at the time,” she said.

In 1959, The Bee described the mural as “an artistic achievement, but just another step in what seemed like a promising career for Thiebaud.”

Fonda also has a piece of art in the SMUD building called “Energy Scrolls,” which was completed in 2022 – over 60 years after Thiebaud completed his mural. For the piece, she was inspired by “Water City” and the architecture of the building.

“Energy Scrolls” consists of colorful hanging sculptures that take up the tradition of paper cutting.

Ortiz, a Sacramento native, said Water City reminds him of home. He sees buildings, people and water in the colorful shapes.

“It reflects the Sacramento region very well and reinforces our connection to this artist who has created incredible work,” Ortiz said.

The next step? Some say: “Start the printing press.”

“I don’t know why there aren’t more postcards of this for sale,” Fonda said.

But seeing Water City on paper doesn’t compare to experiencing it live. If you ever find yourself on Highway 50, like Fonda, you should take a detour to see it up close.

To appreciate the beauty of the mural, “you almost have to touch it with your hands,” Dalkey said.