Doug Aitken TV Takeover / Silence (1968) by Jules Engel

Jules Engel is a pioneer in the field of animation as a visual art form. Born in Budapest in 1909, Engel grew up outside of Chicago and then moved to Los Angeles as a young man where he successfully created dual careers as an abstract artist and experimental filmmaker.

After serving as a filmmaker for the U.S. Air Force in World War II, he joined United Productions of America as part of the team that created Gerald McBoing-Boing and Mr. Magoo. Throughout the 1960s, Engel was absorbed in painting and abstract filmmaking; in 1970 he became the founding director of the Abstract Experimental Animation Department at the California Institute of the Arts, where he taught for more than three decades and trained a generation of contemporary animators. “My work is abstract,” he said, “but it contains an organic element that brings people closer to their inner feelings.”

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