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JULES ENGEL

1909 - 2003

Jules Engel (1909-2003)
Fantasia: Nutcracker Suite, Milkweed Ballerinas  1938/39
Blue pencil on Disney 5-hole animation paper
9 x 12 inches (22.9 x 30.5cm)
Signed; annotated: 'Dance of the Reed Flutes'

Jules Engel was born in Hungary in 1909 and moved to Chicago in his early teens. In high school, he began to explore abstraction through his artwork, an interest that expanded throughout his lifetime in painting, drawing, sculpture and animation.

Moving to Los Angeles in 1937, Engel studied art at the Chouinard Art Institute before working briefly for the Charles Mintz Studios; he then joined Disney Studios to work on Fantasia. While Jules worked on several segments of the film (he assisted animators on the Dance of the Hours segment being one of the only animators who had actually seen live ballet!), he was a primary contributor to the Nutcracker Suite segment of the film, where he is credited as “choreographer” of the segment. Engel put his unique stamp on the film - and on animation history - by introducing the concept of placing his characters on black backgrounds in order to intensify the contrast of the figure. As Engel said in 2001, “I saw the characters as abstract shapes, so thereby giving them proper movement in a small, specific space was not a problem. Actually, the only problem was to have the Disney Studio accept a black background without any texture in it! Even the rhythm and motion to music was greatly enhanced by the black background.” Engel continued his work at Disney, doing color work on the classic film Bambi.

In 1942, Engel enlisted in the army, where he served in the First Motion Picture Unit, creating training films and war bonds advertisements alongside other animators such as Herb Klynn and John Hubley. After the war, Engel worked for United Productions of America, the animation studio responsible for such character classics as Mr. Magoo, Gerald McBoing Boing and Madeline. In 1959, he and Herb Klynn formed Format Films. They produced The Alvin Show as well as the short, Icarus Montgolfier Wright, for which Engel received an Academy Award nomination.

In 1962, Engel moved to Europe, where he created his “Italian series” of abstract paintings. He also explored live-action filmmaking, including Coarze, which won him the Prix Jean Vigo. After Engel returned to the United States, he explored printmaking through a number of venues, creating lithographs at Gemini GEL and the Tamarind Lithography Workshop (for whom he also directed a film), as well as etchings at Utah State University in Ogden. Engel continued to create prints throughout his career, and towards the end of his life experienced a burst of creativity fueled by his collaboration with master-lithography printer George Page of Versailles Press

In the late 1960s, he was approached to join the faculty of the newly-formed California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), where he became founding director of the Experimental Abstract Animation program. Engel took great pride in his teaching, and many of his students - who include John Lasseter, director of Toy Story; Tim Burton, producer of The Nightmare Before Christmas; Steve Hillenburg, creator of SpongeBob Squarepants; Henry Selick, director of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline; Mark Kirkland of The Simpsons; and Christine Panushka, professor of animation at USC - have gone on to have illustrious careers in the entertainment industry. About his teaching, Engel has said “it’s not what I give my students. It's what I don't take away." During his tenure at CalArts, Engel continued to explore his own work through abstract animation in films such as Accident, Train Landscape, Rumble and The Meadow. Engel embraced the collaborative environment fostered at CalArts, encouraging music students to compose scores for his films.

Movement, space, color are all so expertly explored in Engel’s artwork, whether through his animation, his painting, his sculpture, or his printmaking. Engel (2001) has said about color:
“Color is energy.
Color can be the subject, thread or issue.
Color can be decorative, enhancing.
Color can be graceful, fluid.
Color can be serene or aggressive.
Color can be heard.”
..and about movement:
“Movement is the content. Don’t merely look at a movement, feel it.
Movement is the feeling.
Movement should include ‘pause and silence’ , And
Movement emerges, only then to disappear.
Movement implies advance and reinforces with retreat.
Movement is contrast that features agreement and disagreement.
Movement offers ‘after image’ as in RUMBLE where the picture is imprinted in our vision as though we had stared at the sun and kept the penetrating impact after we’d turned away.
Movement can be apparent as in TRAIN LANDSCAPE where we perceive the surrounding scenery with a sense of peripheral vision.
Movement is its own dialogue as lines converse.
Movement is conservation where the most minute detail can express an abundance of ideas.
Movement is revolutions; flapping movements as in TRAIN LANDSCAPE where we are drawn into a new awareness of speeding through a train journey with visual abstract shapes able to show velocity.
Movement is action, and our responses to it may be determined by more than the purely kinetic qualities of that motion. It may be affected by our own state of mind at any particular moment.”

Engel died in Los Angeles in 2003. His influence upon the history of the arts and of film is deep and far-reaching.

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