Jacques de Tonnancour (b. 1917) and Gordon Webber (1909–1965) were distinguished teachers at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts School (MMFA) of Art and Design during the 1940s. Although they were formalist, non-representational painters, they were among the more conservative members of the Contemporary Art Society (CAS) organized in 1939 by John Lyman and Paul-Émile Borduas. They did not share the ideas of the contemporary revolutionary group, "Les Automatistes," led by Borduas in the late 1940s. Tonnancour and fellow painter Alfred Pellan prepared their own manifesto and established "Prisme d’Yeux," a short-lived painting group that included Gordon Webber in its 1948 exhibition at the MMFA. The views of the group, as well as the contents of their manifesto, were anti-automatiste.

Reference:
Reid, Dennis. A Concise History of Canadian Painting. 2nd Ed. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1988.

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