Romanos Mexican Glass Mosaic Panel, Campesino Figure, c. 1950s-1960s

This mid-century mosaic panel is signed Romanos and was produced in Mexico circa the 1950s–1960s, representing a refined example of postwar Mexican studio mosaic work that merges modernist abstraction with deeply rooted traditional iconography. Executed in hand-cut glass tesserae, the composition depicts an archetypal campesino or El Hombre del Pueblo figure—a symbolic representation central to Mexican cultural identity rather than a portrait of a specific individual.

The figure is rendered in a Cubist-influenced idiom, with fractured planes, angular facial geometry, and simplified anatomical forms that universalize the subject. This visual approach aligns with mid-century Mexican modernism, where the rural worker and indigenous pueblo figure functioned as enduring symbols of labor, land, and national continuity. The stylized hat, frontal stance, and dignified posture reinforce this reading, presenting the figure as emblematic rather than narrative.

The color palette is both expressive and symbolic, incorporating saturated blues, greens, blacks, ochres, whites, and reds. These hues evoke landscape, sky, earth, and national identity, while also creating a dynamic rhythmic surface through subtle tonal variation. Each tessera is individually cut and irregular, lending the panel a tactile, hand-worked quality characteristic of studio production rather than industrial mosaic.

Romanos studio works are understood to be collaborative in nature, produced by skilled artisans who adapted modernist visual language into durable decorative and architectural formats. Such mosaics were often commissioned for interiors, civic spaces, and private architectural settings, intended to function as both art and integrated design.

The panel is presented in its original metal frame and retains its Romanos plaque. Measuring 80 × 40 × 2 cm, it is well suited as an architectural wall element or as a standalone sculptural artwork. This work stands as a compelling example of mid-century Mexican modernism, where traditional cultural symbolism is reinterpreted through contemporary form.