Noel Fielding was interviewed in today’s Observer about his admiration for surrealist artist René Magritte.

Noel is amongst a group of contemporary artists including Terry Gilliam, Jeff Koons, Alice Anderson, Gavin Turk, David Shrigley and John Baldessari, who were invited to talk about Magritte on the eve of a major exhibition of his work opening at Tate Liverpool. Noel talks about the humour in Magritte’s paintings and how it’s influenced some of his own work. He says, “Magritte’s paintings always make me laugh. I don’t care if other people say they’re not funny. I find it ridiculous when you walk around a gallery and people are just looking at something obviously funny and stroking their chins. A Magritte painting such as the reverse mermaid [Collective Invention, 1934] is like a stand-up joke. Comedians do those reverse jokes all the time.”

He also talks about his new TV show for E4 and a pipe-based character who sadly never made it onto The Mighty Boosh! To read the piece in full visit the Observer’s site here.