Dogon Seated Abstract Figure in the Manner of a Stargazer

Limbs like bent wire, head tipped forward, the figure sits on a lump of earth and thinks it over.

This seated abstract figure in the manner of a stargazer is Dogon, from Mali, West Africa, and is contemporary, in forged copper. Dogon art is often associated with elongated, pared-down figures, and the stargazer theme nods to the widely discussed place of the sky in Dogon cosmology. Here the body is reduced to looping, rope-like strands that rise from a rounded base and arc over into a small knobbed head. One arm folds in toward the knees. The surface is mottled green, brown and ochre, rough as freshly worked metal. It is 9.5 inches high, 5.5 wide and 4 deep.

Contemplation, rendered almost entirely in elbows.