Janet Tyson reviews Manierre Dawson: Engineering Abstraction at the Muskegon Museum of Art, on view through August 9, 2015.

Tyson writes: "although not a household name, [Dawson] increasingly recognized as the first American artist to work in a completely abstract mode. What’s especially significant about him, though, is that he made his breakthrough to non-objective imagery prior to any exposure to modernist art. Instead, his innovation stemmed from his training and employment as a structural engineer."