7321 Beverly Boulevard • Los
Angeles California 90036 • (323) 933-5523 Fax: (323) 933-7618
web site:
www.tobeycmossgallery.com
•email: tobeymoss@earthlink.net
This exhibition is focused upon JULES ENGEL - his creative animation
and JULES ENGEL as a source of
visual animation history.
Jules Engel brought fine art aesthetics through structure and
abstraction to the art of animation. His line was kinetic, his
forms pulsed rhythmically, he created visual music, even in his
geometric structures and paintings. Bold colors - even black
backgrounds(!) - were ‘signatures’ of his compositions.
After groundwork at the Charles Mintz Studio in Hollywood in the early
1930s, he was brought into Walt Disney Studios to replace Oskar
Fischinger, who had left the current production of Fantasia due to personality
conflicts. Engel taught the ballet movements of the Disney menagerie to
the animators who had never seen a live ballet! The Chinese ‘Mushroom Dance' and the Russian ‘Thistle Dance' confirmed
the power of black backgrounds; Bambi
reiterated that strength.
In early 1940s Engel joined the Army Air Force's motion picture
division. He worked on training films for the military, applying
his experience and style. In 1944 he joined the newly founded
United Productions of America. With the close of the war, UPA
began to garner honors....as Oscars© for
productions of Gerald McBoing-Boing
and Mr Magoo
attested. Engel's hand guided both projects.
By the late 1950s, Jules Engel and partner Herb Klynn formed Format
Films, creating such notable films series as The Alvin Show and Icarus Montgolfier Wright - the
latter was nominated for an Academy Award in 1962.
In 1969 he joined the new California Institute of the Arts, founding
the Department of Experimental Abstract Animation for film. Jules
Engel always felt that his greatest achievements were in the classroom
- his students have gone on to reach extraordinary goals in 20th and
21st centuries animation history. Former students include John
Lassiter (Toy Story),
Tim Burton, Henry Selick (The
Nightmare Before Christmas), Mark Kirkland (The Simpsons) and Stephen
Hillenberg (SpongeBob Squarepants).
In addition to teaching, Engel continued to produce animated films
including Accident (1973), Mobiles (1978) and The Meadow (1994). In 2001,
Engel was honored by CalArts and named Institute Fellow for his
lifetime of achievement.
The Tobey C. Moss Gallery presents drawings, paintings and prints
related to Engel’s long and illustrious career in the field of
abstraction and animation. Independent paintings,
constructions and drawings created between the 1930s and 2001 will also
be shown.
Click on
individual images for
more information.
For more images and biographical
data, email
us at tobeymoss@earthlink.net
