Persistence of Memory

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Salvador Dali's The Persistence of Memory
Highly recognizable, often spoofed, The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí is a painting that tends to be a universal symbol of Surrealist or Modern Art. In the work, clocks appear to melt over branches and rigid surfaces, and ants devour a pocket watch while a vague face hovers in the background. The background itself shows the rocky landscape of Port Lligat in Dalí’s native Catalonia, Spain. The painting is like a well-crafted hallucination, with the fascinating yet confusing details of a dream.

Since The Persistence of Memory was finished in 1931, many interpretations of its symbolism and components have been made. The face beyond is said to be Dalí himself, the ants may represent destruction or decay, the rocks can be viewed as eternity or reality, and the melting clocks perhaps show that regimented time is an artificial concept that cannot withstand the true power of the universe beyond. The actual painting is only about 10 x 13 inches, intensely colored, one of Dalí’s self-described “hand-painted dream photographs.”

Surrealist Cheese

Oftentimes when a painting becomes extremely famous, it can lose its full impact and become a caricature of itself. Before The Persistence of Memory turned into that sort of caricature, and before Salvador Dalí himself became a caricature as well the crazy-eyed, mustachioed man fond of flamboyant stunts and self promotion there was Dalí in 1931, and there was a still-burgeoning art climate that since 1900 had brought forth never-before-seen concepts like Fauvism, Cubism, Dadaism, Futurism and early abstract work. Salvador Dalí was then linked to the Surrealists, through a group in Paris which included writer André Breton, painter Max Ernst and photographer Man Ray. Salvador Dali and fellow Spaniard and Surrealist Luis Buñuel had also collaborated on another iconic piece, the 1928 film Un Chien Andalou , where a straight razor meets an eyeball and cuts it open like a soft-boiled egg.

In 1931, Dalí was twenty-seven and just starting to break through as an artist. He was newly involved with Gala, wife of Surrealist poet Paul Éluard, who would eventually become Dalí’s own wife and muse until her death in 1982. At the time of the painting of The Persistence of Memory, Dalí had been working on a Port Lligat landscape but was stuck as to how to complete it. He had a headache and was still trying to figure out what to do with the painting, when he began to focus on some Camembert cheese that he had just eaten. The gooey softness of the cheese, the intensifying headache and Salvador Dalí’s general mindset all fused, and he came up with the concept of “soft watches, one of them hanging lamentably,” and the rest, as they say, is art history.
Legacy and Reinterpretation
The Persistence of Memory was initially brokered by American art dealer Julien Levy, who had told Salvador Dalí at first that it most likely wouldn’t sell. It did sell, however, and soon made its way to New York’s Museum of Modern Art. The American public quickly began to link Surrealism with Salvador Dalí, and by 1936 he was on the cover of Time magazine.
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