The common idiom “it takes two to tango” is immediately called into question in both the imagery and text of the Tango portfolio. Featured is a series of eight intaglio prints that depict plants and animals alongside eleven sheets of prose that explore the steps of the Argentinian dance, the tango. The portfolio expresses artist Nancy Graves and writer Pedro Cuperman’s meditations on the dance. Their imagery and words become paired in an illustrated book with explorations that take different formats and directions. Both Graves and Cuperman look towards humankind and nature as a place where beings come together in the experience of living. This exhibition presents Graves’s eight prints alongside the portfolio frontispiece, and a page of Cuperman’s text to immerse visitors in the collaborative dance of the tango.

This exhibition is organized by the Asheville Art Museum from the Museum’s Collection and curated by Hilary Schroeder, assistant curator.

Image: Nancy Graves, Parable of Nostalgia from the Tango portfolio, 1991, intaglio on cotton rag paper, edition 12/26, publisher: Iris Editions, New York, image: 26 × 17 5/8 inches, sheet: 35 ¾ × 26 inches. Gift of Delphia Lamberson, 2021.14.01.04. © Nancy Graves Foundation, Inc. / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.