Manierre Dawson

http://www.askart.com/biography.asp?ID=30548

One of the few modernists in Chicago in the 1920s, he first studied Civil Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology. But from childhood he had shown painting talent and created abstraction. Six months in Europe and introduction to Gertrude Stein and exposure to Cezanne encouraged him, but independent of Europeans, he developed his own unique style. His goal was to express spiritual truth through pure form. However, his output was small and ultimately he had little influence on other Chicago modernists because he had many demands of family including fruit farming to support them. (Source: Archives of Askart.com)