Dogon Standing Male Tellem Figure, Based

A branch, a knee, a head thrown back. Very little more was needed.

This standing male Tellem figure is carved wood, from the Dogon people of Mali in West Africa. Its age is indeterminate, likely more than 100 years. The Tellem are generally described as the people who lived along the Bandiagara cliffs before the Dogon, and the name is often given to figures in this spare style. Here a long, crusted limb leans sharply outward from a rounded foot, past a thick knee, to a small tilted face. It stands 65 inches high and spreads 43 wide.

The shadow it throws is nearly as interesting, and just as patient.