1904-1994
Enid Bell was a Scottish-born artist and sculptor. She was sometimes called “Handy Andy” due to her various experiments in art.
After marrying Missak Palanchian in New York in 1932, she moved to Newark to 21 Myrtle Ave. In 1933, she won the Sculpture Medal from the Newark Art Club.
In 1934, she completed the first set of murals for the Public Works Arts Project (WPA) in Newark at Coes Place Primary School. From 1940-1941 she was New Jersey Arts & Crafts Project, W.P.A., Sculpture Supervisor.
She did other pieces with WPA like a Triptych at Thirteen Avenue School.
Though she moved to North Bergen in the 1940s, in 1944, she began work as Head of the Sculpture Dept. at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts, where she remained until 1968.
Exhibits featuring her work in Newark included a 1934 joint show with her husband at Kresge Department Store, annual exhibits at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts 1947-1949, a Newark Public Library exhibit Summer 1968, and exhibits with the Associated Artists of New Jersey at the Newark Museum (1949), Library (1953) and Arts Festival (1959).
In 1968, Michael Lenson wrote in the Newark News Enid was “a master sculptor and ceramist of long accomplishment and recognition.”
Bell died in Englewood, NJ.
Bibliography
Wingert, Dorothea “Newark Artist Finishes School Murals Under Works Project” Newark News April 12 1934
“Bell Palachchian at the Silo” Newark News Mar 21, 1954
“Newark Woman Artist Noted for her work in Bas Relief…” Newark News Oct 17, 1933
NY Marriage Index
http://www.enidbell.com/background.htm
Lenson, Michael, “Four Interesting Shows” Newark News Sept 15, 1968
Photo credit: http://www.enidbell.com/pictures.htm