Dogon Standing Male Figure with Twisted Torso

A body twisted like a wrung cloth, standing on legs as long as a stork’s.

Dogon metalworkers of Mali, West Africa, cast this standing male figure with a twisted torso in bronze in the 19th to 20th century. Dogon figures of this kind are generally associated with ancestors and with ritual. The head tips forward with a lifted snout-like face, and the narrow torso bends at an angle. Thin, pillar-like legs rise from a small rectangular base. The surface is a mottled green and brown patina.

About five inches tall. Eccentric in the best way.