'Tzompantli' by Gustavo Monroy: a cry for the taken life

By Once Noticias. Mexican Press Agency.

The exhibit reflects the experiences not only of Mexico but of the world: migrations, femicides, oppression, and injustice

With the goal of extending 20th-century muralism and turning his work into a space of reflection and a call for social commitment, the monumental piece by painter, engraver, and artist Gustavo Monroy entitled “Tzompantli” will be presented at the Colegio de San Ildefonso in Mexico City from now until March 26, 2026.

The painter’s visual language intertwines past and present with rawness and sensitivity, inviting the viewer to recognize in the images the echo of a shared wound.

Over more than four decades, the artist has created a body of work which, in his own words, can be understood as a genuine ‘logbook of violence’ in Mexico.

The artist’s exhibition reflects diverse problems experienced not only in Mexico but worldwide: migrations, forced disappearances, massacres, femicides, oppression, and injustice.

Tzompantli stands as a cry for forgotten justice and the right to a life taken away. Through the re-signification of ritual death as an offering to Huitzilopochtli, the work represents social collapse and, at the same time, a form of life’s resistance against oblivion.

The piece, which began in 2020 amid the global uncertainty caused by COVID-19 and completed in 2025, is a tribute to those who died during the pandemic. It is an oil on canvas measuring 3.10 meters high by 11 meters long, depicting victims not only of the virus but also of anonymous violence through skulls and human skeletons.

The piece will be exhibited until March 29, 2026, at the Colegio de San Ildefonso, located at 16 Justo Sierra street in historic downtown Mexico City.

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