The Coastal Discovery Museum: The Round Table
The iconic circle of artists that brought color and international acclaim to the Lowcountry
Story by Carolyn Males
The Coastal Discovery Museum’s new exhibition features 15 artists from the legendary Round Table that met at The Red Piano Gallery from 1970 to 1995. Come with us as we join those pioneer artists who formed the basis for today’s dynamic visual arts community on Hilton Head and beyond.
Thursdays, 10 a.m.
Oh, to have been a fly on the wall. Or maybe, in this case, the lizard on the glass slider in “the room where it was happening.” In those early days of Sea Pines, before the Harbour Town lighthouse was built and when wild pigs still roamed Hilton Head’s forests, Walter Greer came from Greenville to Sea Pines to paint Lowcountry landscapes of marshes and beaches. As he put brush to canvas, he had visions of an artists’ colony, a place where artists could meet up to talk, share resources and collaborate.
By the 1970s, after Allen and Mary Palmer opened their Red Piano Gallery on Cordillo Parkway, that dream had become a reality, as artists from New York and beyond came to settle on the island. Noting all the artists stopping by each day, Mary, along with Lynne Palmer, her gallery director, came up with an idea. Why not set aside a time and place for a group of artists to hang out together?
Manhattan had had its Algonquin Round Table in the 1920s and ‘30s, where the literati exchanged witticisms, gossip and news. Now Hilton Head would have its own Round Table, where a select group of artists (you had to be invited to join) could gather around the table in the gallery’s kitchen and exchange ideas, talk about what they were working on and catch up on the latest art news. That first wave included famed illustrators Coby Whitmore, Joe Bowler, Joe DeMers and Ralph Ballantine, with their portfolios of magazine covers, product ads and other commercial work, who were now pursuing fine art careers.
They would be joined by gallery owner-illustrator-musician Allen Palmer and the man who sparked this arts community, Walter Greer. Along the way a galaxy of talented artists would pull up chairs. Among them: illustrator George Plante, Aldwyth (who would later become renowned for her bricolage and epically scaled mixed-media pieces), painters Elizabeth Grant, Ray Ellis, Tua Hayes, Marge Parker, Danielle DeMers, Katy Hodgman (also, arts writer for The Island Packet) and Louanne LaRoche. Over the years the composition of the Round Table would change, but it would remain a magnet for the arts community.
Somewhere in the 1980s, the lizard showed up. He would splay himself on the glass slider and cast his reptilian eye on the lively camaraderie below. Wreathed in a haze of smoke (cigarettes were popular in those days), over coffee served in mugs each artist had adorned, this informal “club” would assemble each Thursday morning at 10. Joe Bowler would launch the informal discussion, reading aloud art critic Ted Wolff’s latest column in The Christian Science Monitor. Then they were off, peppering the conversation with opinions (everyone had them) — all interspersed with good-natured ribbing of one another. Aldwyth, back from treks to New York and Washington, would come armed with brochures from the latest shows, more fodder for consideration. Sometimes she and Joe Bowler, both known to plant themselves on opposite sides of the political spectrum, would verbally spar about current events. Occasionally outsiders would be welcomed in to discuss upcoming events like Evening of the Arts fundraisers and Art League exhibitions. Afterwards the discourse might spill over into lunch at the Ralph Ballentine-designed CQ’s or the old Gaslight Restaurant off Palmetto Bay Road.
Escher, The Red Piano Gallery mascot
Painter Louanne LaRoche, who became owner of the Red Piano in 1980, continued the Round Table tradition. But she also brought in a new member, albeit one who’d never wielded a palette knife –– Escher, the canine gallery mascot. Named after the mind-bending Dutch graphic artist, Escher made it his mission to escort visitors from the parking lot to the entrance. How to describe Escher? A “Lab-atian,” says LaRoche, who’d rescued this amiable Lab-Dalmatian mix from a local shelter.
Escher instinctively knew when it was Thursday. He’d cock his ear at the sound of a car pulling up, and he’d be out the door, pointing each member to the stairs that led up to the round table. But he saved his most enthusiastic welcome for his favorite, Joe Bowler. LaRoche would have to grab his collar to keep him from tackling the painter and smothering him with wet kisses. After all, Bowler and Escher were the best of pals, especially since Joe kept a bowl of dog treats by his coffee mug. Those biscuits must have looked mighty tempting because Ray Ellis, mistaking them for people snacks, once picked one up and ate it.
Then there was the banishment. Escher’s enthusiasm had been too much for a visiting child, so LaRoche had exiled him to a temporary time-out at home. Confinement was clearly too big a cross to bear, especially on a Thursday. He soon executed a nifty escape from his “prison” on Water Oak, bounding through swamps and The Sea Pines Forest Preserve to get back on his post, muddy and wet, at The Red Piano’s front door.
Later, another LaRoche rescue, Bubba, a pit bull-Boston terrier, came trotting behind Escher, seeking his own spot by the table.
The Red Piano
Louanne LaRoche is playing the theme from Romeo and Juliet on the original Red Piano, the 1898 baby grand that had been the gallery’s centerpiece and inspiration for its name. Today the Steinway’s vintage sound, courtesy of aged felts and strings, offers echoes of the past. It’s a couple of months before the Coastal Discovery show opens, and I’m wandering around LaRoche’s house admiring her collections of skeletons and shells, African carvings and ceramics, along with a trove of works from the artists of The Round Table — among them, a Coby Whitmore painting of LaRoche at the red piano with Escher by her side, a George Plante original painting for the poster of the gallery, not to mention the old dial telephone “bejeweled” by Aldwyth with mementos from LaRoche’s life — childhood dominoes, scraps of zebra-patterned fabric, Algerian money and a Coca Cola bottle cap spirited away from a camping trip in the Sahara.
When the Palmers opened the gallery in late 1969, they placed the piano, which they’d had painted red, a color symbolic of their love for “hot jazz,” in the main gallery. Here they hosted champagne receptions and jazz nights. Attendees might find famous guest musicians like Marian McPartland tickling the ivories or Martin Mull strumming the guitar. Legend has it that snakes, perhaps drawn by notes from Allen Palmer’s clarinet, would slither up the outdoor stone patio, to give a listen. (They didn’t seem to offer any opinion on the artwork, however.)
A few years later Libby Ellis, bought the gallery, sans piano, which the Palmers had taken with them, and renamed it The Wallace Gallery. Through name and ownership changes, the Round Table continued to meet. Then in November 1980, when LaRoche became owner, she bought back the piano from the Palmers, reinstalled it and reinstated the iconic gallery name. The banter around the table would fall silent after LaRoche sold the business in 1995.
In later years The Red Piano Gallery changed ownership a few times and finally relocated to Calhoun Street in Bluffton. Today gallerists Ben and Lyn Whiteside have a new red piano gracing their rooms of fine art, but the gallery name, along with its mystique and memories of the old Round Table, remain.
See the exhibition
What: It’s Thursday! Artists of the Round Table
When: Nov. 12-March 23; Opening reception
5-7 p.m., Nov. 13
Where: Coastal Discovery Museum
Details: Works from 15 of The Red Piano Gallery’s artists on display. coastaldiscovery.org
Meet the artist
What: Louanne LaRoche Talk
When: 5-6:30 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 4
Where: Coastal Discovery Coastal Discovery Museum
Details: A wine reception with artist Louanne LaRoche, The Red Piano Gallery’s owner from 1980-95, offering her personal view of the Round Table and the work of the artists on exhibit, followed by a Q & A.
Tickets are $10. coastaldiscovery.org
