JULES ENGEL (1909-2003) emigrated with family from Hungary to Chicago in the 1920s.  Attending Evanston High School, in addition to his constant drawing, he loved ballet and was a record setting runner which sensitized him to the beauty of abstract motion.  He moved to Los Angeles and worked for Charles Mintz, animation production company until he moved to Walt Disney Studios in 1938 on the production of 'Fantasia' (released 1940).  

He was drafted into the U.S. Army Air Force in their Motion Picture (Hal Roach) Division 1942-1945. After the war he and others from the Hal Roach Division were the founding members of UPA Studio.  By 1951, with Herb Klynn, he started Format Films. They produced the Oscar-nominated "Icarus Montgolfier Wright", with art work by Joseph Mugnaini and Ray Bradbury.  From 1968 until his death in 2003, he developed and led the program of Experimental Abstract Animation in film at CalArts.

Living both in the United States and Europe, Jules Engel, his paintings, drawings, films and prints have been widely exhibited (The Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, NY, etc) and acquired by public and private collections internationally.

His most recent creativity was shown in the series of lithographs created 2000 -  2003 with George Page of the Versailles Press, Los Angeles.  A retrospective of his films and art inaugurated the REDCAT Theater of the Walt Disney Music Hall, Los Angeles, CA.

Tobey C. Moss Gallery has works by Jules Engel that span the years from Walt Disney Studios to CalArts.