Native Sons and Daughters In the 1930s, the state commissioned renowned local artist Enid Bell to create a series of sculptures for public buildings throughout New Jersey as part of the Federal Arts Projects (FPA) during the New Deal administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In addition, Bell, a Union City resident, also worked for the Works Project Administration (WPA) as the supervisor for its Sculpture of the New Jersey Arts and Crafts Project, which ran from 1935 to 1943.
Union City was the recipient of numerous Bell pieces, including “Science” and “Music,” mahogany wood carvings that were placed at the now defunct 15th Street Public Library in 1938.
The carvings are still in mint condition and are still being housed at the building, which will be renovated as a new day care center for the city. The carvings continue to be federal property.
Union City’s 43rd Street Library also received two of Bell’s wooden carvings, a plaster panel, and two cast stone sculptures.
At the time Bell was commissioned for the pieces that were placed in the 43rd Street Library, she was listed as residing at Mountain Road in Union City, where the Troy Towers now stand. She also listed a previous address in North Bergen.
Infamous carvings
Bell became best known for her sculpture pieces and seemed to be gifted in wood carvings, although she had no formal training in the genre.
Despite her equally impressive works in stone, Bell said she preferred working with wood for “its warm tone, light weight, and the relative ease of working with it.”
Bell’s pieces depicted American life from children and mothers to reading and studying, including sculptures of some of America’s greatest thinkers.
Enid Bell
Bell was born on Dec. 5, 1904 in London, England to Scottish natives Jean and Horatio Bell.
Bell spent her childhood years studying in her parents’ native home in Glasgow and in New York City, where she first arrived in 1915. She then attended high school in New York City from 1918 to 1920.
Bell started her art training while traveling back and forth to the States. She returned to Scotland in 1919 to study a term at the Glasgow School of Art, and in 1920 she studied sculpture, drawing, and painting at St. John’s Wood School of Art in London, At the age of 17, Bell enrolled at the Arts Student League in New York City in 1922, where she completed her art schooling.
Bell began exhibiting her work and participated in numerous one-woman shows across the New York Metro area and the United States.
While continuing with her own projects, Bell also began teaching at Miss Chapin’s School in New York City from 1930 to 1931, and had a 24-year teaching career from 1944 to 1968 at the School of Fine and Industrial Arts in Newark, where she became head of the Sculpture Department.
During that time, she met and married her husband Missak Palanchian in 1932. Palanchian, of Armenian heritage, was a businessman and also an artist. The couple had one son, John, who was born in 1933.
In 1973, the National Fine Arts Inventory staff of Englewood, where Bell taught most of her career, was compiling biographies of artists who worked for the federal government during the Depression era, and Bell sent in a short description of her history at FPA.
“Under the Federal Art Project I carved a large plaster panel, which is installed in the Union City Public Library, together with three portrait panels in wood and plaster for the Hoboken and Union City libraries,” wrote Bell. “The experience I have gained in the execution of these large works in invaluable, and has contributed greatly to my growth as an artist.”
She also added, “My husband is an Armenian artist who, alas, cannot indulge himself in the spiritual luxury of painting, and I have a son, 4 years old, who shows unmistakable signs of becoming a violinist.”
Infamous carvings
Unfortunately, Bell’s beautiful wooden carvings that continue to adorn the 43rd Street Library’s walls have been damaged. At some point during renovations, the carvings were mistakenly painted over, covering the original wood finish.
Bell also created a carved plaster panel entitled Story Hour (1968), which depicted children sitting at a table listening to their teacher reading. The carving was also painted over and is now in a storage space at the library. It was originally hung in the entrance.
One of the sculpture pieces Bell designed is still in plain view for patrons to enjoy. The “Children Reading” statue made in 1968 still adorns the grassy lot next to the 43rd Street Library, and is protected by a chain link fence, which encircles the back lot property.
The other stone sculpture entitled “Bird Bath” is secluded along the wall of the library further back on the property, and was also, unfortunately, damaged through the years. The head of the bird is broken off.
Other works by Bell can be found in Hoboken’s public library, the Marcus Garvey School in Newark, and the libraries in Englewood and Leonia. Many pieces have also gone into private collections.
Bell, who died in 1994, received many accolades for her work, including the Gold Medal Diploma of the Paris Exposition of 1937. She is also highlighted on the New Jersey Women’s History Web site at www.scc.rutgers.edu/njwomenshistory.