Prognostic (Right Panel of Triptych) belongs to a series of seven paintings by Manierre Dawson from early 1910 that are considered among the earliest examples of abstraction in America. The triptych was not exhibited together until the 1976 retrospective of the artist's work shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois. Dawson made his mark on abstraction in the early twentieth century, using techniques that merged his mastery of mechanical drawing with geometric and mathematical themes and a bright, rich color palette. In his early years, Dawson studied structural engineering, a practice that informed his later abstract explorations of dimensional space. These compositions were seen as revolutionary when they were first exhibited in the years surrounding the Armory Show (1913). Reflecting on the piece in 1969, Dawson explained, "Prognostic is one of seven paintings (the others are smaller) painted shortly after I graduated from college, where I had so many engineering and mathematic courses that their influence of this shows in the backgrounds of coordinates and superposition of differentials. The black lines and circles thrown over these are subconsciously possibly suggested by the pencils, pens, and erasers generally strewn over a student's drawing board."

Historically overlooked, but among the first true abstract painters in America, Dawson first explored non-representational painting in the years between 1910 and 1914, during his travels through Europe. Already advancing in Europe during the pre-World War I period was a shift from Realism and Impressionism towards Expressionism, which favored an abundant use of color over formal perspective and line. In her review of the 1988 Whitney Museum Museum of American Art exhibition on Dawson’s early abstractions, Roberta Smith, an art critic for the New York Times, compares Dawson’s work to that of Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, and Arthur Dove. Commenting on Prognostic, Smith observes, “vaulting arcs suggest mountains or trees, while yellow dots bring to mind a series of glowing suns. Strange as it sounds, these images could have been inspired by looking directly into the sun and then looking at the landscape through a haze of light and spots. Black dots and six short lines energize and syncopate their compositions.” Dawson's work is included in prominent public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among several others. The central panel of the triptych was acquired by the Milwaukee Art Center in 1967, while the left panel remains in a private collection.