In his early years, Manierre Dawson studied structural engineering, a practice that informed his later abstract explorations of dimensional space. Among the first true abstract painters in America, Dawson began experimenting with nonrepresentational painting in the years between 1910 and 1914 during his travels through Europe. Ascension exhibits techniques that blend his mastery of mechanical draftsmanship with his eye for a rich, warm color palette. Dawson painted Ascension in 1913 against the cultural backdrop of the transformational 1913 Armory Show, the first large-scale exhibition dedicated to modern art in America.