Without the starry mantle as a canvas to paint stars or blur horizons that overlap with clouds and mist, the artist has no choice but to replace these ethereal spaces with more tangible ones to capture his worldview. 

The murals were selected by a very brave kind of artist who uses the urban landscape as a blank canvas and the passerby as a rapt spectator. Streets instead of murals and sky instead of roofs are just some of the advantages that such art offers. 

Following the tradition of adapting old convents and abbeys into cultural centres, “El Nigromante” used to be the Royal Convent of the Conception, founded thanks to the initiative and financial sponsorship of Sister María Josefa Lina de la Canal y Hervás in 1755. 

The colonial house served as a school for many years and even had a period as an Army barracks until it fell into ruin and it was not until 1961 that it was rebuilt with several halls and galleries. The following year, it was inaugurated 

It owes its name to the prominent San Miguelense writer Ignacio Ramírez who adopted his nickname from necromancy, which is the art of communicating with those who have already passed on to a better or worse life, as a form of protest against the Catholic Church. 

Inside it houses 3 wonderful murals worthy of contemplation:

Eleanor Cohen’s “The Washerwomen,” depicting several women and children immersed in washing clothes in shallow water, adorns the stairs. 

“Monument to General Ignacio Allende” a mural by the glorious Siqueiros that unfortunately remained unfinished because it was part of an artistic experiment in which, within the framework of a workshop, our famous muralist taught a course to war veterans from the United States but apparently war was more his thing than art and they left what could have been our own Sistine Chapel abandoned; an unfinished masterpiece. 

The one who did finish his work and for four was Pedro Martínez who bequeathed to the place “The Fanaticism of the People”, “The Weavers”, “The Cantina” and “Guanajuato Almacigo de Patriotas”. 

All of these murals remain as an inspiring testimony for the new students who study at the Cultural Center and dedicate their lives to expressing their own vision. 

Without a doubt, muralism is a living art that, by having such extraordinary proportions, reminds us that the hand of an artist has been shaken by God. 

You too can be a Necromancer and speak with the dead and their ideas that are still alive by carefully contemplating these murals.