The Taste of Sorrow 1948

René Magritte made this oil painting titled "The Taste of Sorrow," now here in Birmingham, and it’s a head-scratcher, isn’t it? The colour is muted, almost sickly – a pale green that bleeds into the sky. You can see Magritte has applied the paint thinly, in layers, letting the surface breathe. A bird, or maybe a leaf shaped like a bird, sits heavy with symbolism. I find my eyes drawn to the caterpillar crawling up the bird-leaf. A tiny detail, but it throws the whole thing off. It's like a glitch in the matrix, or a typo in a poem. That’s Magritte for you – always poking at the edges of reality. He reminds me a bit of de Chirico. He had the same fascination with the uncanny. Both artists were exploring the poetics of the unexpected, reminding us that art isn’t about answers, it’s about questions.