The people in the ink-wash paintings of Zhang Peicheng generally have pea-like funny eyes, distorted bodies and an air of idleness. Zhou Tao talks with the artist whose works are finding favor with China's growing middle class.Zhang Peicheng's solo exhibition has occupied the entire ground floor hall of the Shanghai Art Museum - and it has a curious title, "Idly, Watching Five Colors."The people in the pictures generally have pea-like funny eyes, distorted bodies and an air of idleness. The lines and strokes are very rough, just like those of children."I emphasize the form and content," says Zhang. "It's very much different from traditional ones. Even when Westerners look at my paintings, they can tell the difference."Zhang, director of the Liu Haisu Art Museum, is one of the veteran Chinese ink artists in Shanghai and has long been doing innovative work in this traditional Chinese art form.Although he was once a student at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and at Shanghai Normal University, Zhang officially graduated in Chinese painting major from the Art College of Shanghai University.Born in 1948 in Shanghai, Zhang had been an art lover since his childhood. Besides the title of chief director of Liu Haisu Art Museum, Zhang is also a member of China Artists Association and part-time professor of the Art College of Shanghai University.Zhang's art is more focused on comfort and coziness rather than grand themes such as life and death. It's relaxing, modern and comforting, just like the way Matisse had worked.They are not spiritually heavy, have no pain or tragedy, no doctrine or dogma in their seriousness, and they don't cast the dark, evil, ugly or violent side of human beings onto viewers.Zhang's paintings have no burden of social criticism although Zhang in the 1980s went through a time full of political enthusiasms and idealism.Since the 1990s, when people became more pragmatic and economy-oriented, the pursuit of personal success became a priority. With the increase of the number of people in the middle-class population, a consumer market for art has emerged.Zhang's work is just what people want. It finds middle-class favor and also has a strong personal symbolism."The spirit of Chinese ink art lies not in the medium," says Zhang. "If people use different materials, that is not necessarily a innovation."And I myself don't quite understand avant-garde art. They go too far and it is post-colonialist art," he adds.