An international graphic art exhibition -- entitled "the Doublefold Dream of Art" -- has gotten underway at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts. The collection is on display in the newly built Art Museum. The art work goes beyond generational and aesthetic limits to represent an international panorama of artistic creation stretching from the 1960s to the present day.

More than fifty years ago, two young Italian art students met, fell in love and got married. Sharing a passion for expressing the beauty of art print and armed with talents and youthful optimism Valter and Eleonora Rossi established Rome's Art Print Shop 2RC in 1959.

On show are nearly 160 graphic masterpieces by world renowned artists who have collaborated with the couple over the past five decades. Among the artists are Francis Bacon, Alexander Calder, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, Jannis Kounellis, Man Ray, Henry Moore and Julian Schnabel.

There once was a time when graphic artists generally didn't believe the medium was capable of properly expressing their vision. But the Rossis have their own flair for convincing the artists. They have mastered ways of devising and perfecting the treating of plates and paper to achieve results that satisfy the demanding artists.

Valter Rossi says their objective is to "merge the process of execution of a print with the creative act". He says "the moment is neither at the beginning nor the end but permeates the entire creating process". And he adds that the finished image is also a work of art, in terms of its technical content.

Valter Rossi, the founder of 2RC art shop said, "We never meant to make it a career. We were motivated by the mere passion. When we graduated from the art academy, we realized we could never be the top-notch artists. So we accomplish ourselves by collaborating with the top-notch artists, providing them technical solutions that help enrich and extend artistic expression."

The Italian ambassador to China, Riccardo Sessa along with the Rossis family and the head of the Art Museum of the China Central Academy of Fine Arts -- participated in the opening ceremony. A printing press -- the biggest in the world designed by Valter Rossi in 1969 -- was donated to the academy to mark the occasion beginning a long term collaboration between the two sides.

The show was the first world level exhibition held in the academy's newly built museum. The new museum -- designed by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki -- was completed in March 2008.

The exhibition will run through Valentine's Day. It will then move on to the Lunxun Fine Arts Institute in Shenyang, as well as the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute.