The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

Differential Complex

1910

Manierre Dawson

(American, 1887–1969)
America
oil on board
Framed: 54.6 x 44.5 x 5.1 cm (21 1/2 x 17 1/2 x 2 in.); Unframed: 40.7 x 31.8 cm (16 x 12 1/2 in.)
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 2001.123
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Although he remained interested in art making, Manierre Dawson spent the bulk of his career as a fruit farmer in Michigan.

Description

Manierre Dawson's mathematical training and his early work as a civil engineer influenced his artistic interests. His early abstractions, including Differential Complex, are reminiscent of mathematical diagrams. He is credited to be one of the first American painters to create purely abstract work.
  • Dawson estate; sold February 4, 1990 to Mr. and Mrs. R. Shapiro, New York, NY; sold by Tim Foley of the Tilden Foley Gallery, New Orleans, LA; Hollis Taggart Gallery, New York, NY
  • Sims, Lowery Stokes. The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 67, no. 57
    Adams, Henry. What's American about American art?: a gallery tour in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2008. Reproduced: p. 118 - 119
  • Against the Grain: Modernism in the Midwest. Massillon Museum, Massillon, OH (organizer) (May 15-September 12, 2010); Riffe Gallery, Columbus, OH (November 4, 2010-January 9, 2011); Southern Ohio Museum, Portsmouth, OH (March 5-May 29, 2011).
    Massillon Museum (5/15/2010 - 9/12/2010), Riffe Gallery (11/4/2010 - 1/9/2011), and Southern Ohio Museum (3/5/2011 - 5/29/2011): "Against the Grain: Modernism in the Midwest", ex. cat. no. 1, p. 34.
    The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).
    MOCA Cleveland (6/9/2006 - 8/20/2006): "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art", no. 57, p. 118, color repr. p. 14 & p. 67.
    New York, NY, Whitney Museum of American Art, Manniere Dawson: Early Abstractionist (8 July - 11 September 1988).
  • {{cite web|title=Differential Complex|url=false|author=Manierre Dawson|year=1910|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2001.123