The Persistence of Memory

What is the context and how did that influence the work?

Surrealism is “a 20th – century avant-garde movement in art and literature that sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images.” Many famous surrealist artists include Frida Kahlo, Man Ray, Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dali among many others. In their work, they manage to combine a variety seemingly different images into one cohesive piece. For this reason, the works of these artists are widely renowned.

For this project, I have decided to focus on Salvador Dali. Dali was a Spanish surrealist artist from Catalonia, Spain. By profession, Dali was a draftsman but he also dabbled in sculpting, filmmaking, and photography. However, he was most known for his surrealist paintings. These paintings, critics believe, were influenced by Renaissance artists. Of all his paintings, the most famous was “The Persistence of Memory” that was completed in August of 1931.

Though the painting is well known, many critics are still confused as to what the painting is representing. Many critics believe that the painting was inspired by Albert Einstein’s  Special Theory of Relativity. This theory states that space and time are interwoven into what is known as the space-time continuum. Meaning that the events that occur for one person at a given time could occur at different times for another person. However, after an interview, this idea was disproved. Dali said that the inspiration for “The Persistence of Memory’ was actually inspired by a block of Camembert cheese melting in the sun. Dali likened the watches melting to what he saw happening to the Camembert cheese when it was under the sun.

What is the artist communicating and how?

Dali was able to show a lot of themes and symbolism though his a painting. One of the themes was the relativity of time and space. The melting of these watches shows that time is not forever and it can easily be destroyed or damaged. Nothing in our world is as it seems to be and can easily be changing according to our surroundings and environment.

Another one of the themes is of conscious versus unconscious. This theme is about what we think while we are awake versus what we think about while we dream and how these two things are actually entirely different. Even if what we dream about is different from what we think about while we are awake, these two things can influence one another. For example, we can dream about things that we want to happen. Dali represents this by having the center of the painting be a “thing” with its eye closed to that it is dreaming.

Many of the symbols seen in this painting can be seen in many of his other works also. An example of this would be the “thing” in the center of the painting. This “thing” has a melting watch on top of it and seems to have its eye closed with long eyelashes extending from it. Dali often used this “thing” in his other pieces as a representation of himself. The viewer of the painting is not really able to figure out what kind of person or creature the “thing” actually is and it seems like something a dream would create. It also has its eye closed to show that is is in a dream like state.

The second and third symbols are not as large or as prominent as the first symbol but they are the ones that are recurring in his artwork. The ants that are seen on the orange watch on the left side of the painting are used in Dali’s other paintings to symbolize death. The landscape seen in the background of the painting represents a peninsula in north eastern Catalonia where Dali is from.

Why do you find it beautiful?

I first saw this painting sometime during middle school and I remember how much I liked the painting. In comparison to the other paintings I have seen, this one seemed the most interesting to me. It was different from other types of paintings and held my attention for more than a few seconds.

I liked this painting because it has a lot of quirks. Dali put many ties to himself and how he felt in the painting. For example, the background of the painting showed where he grew up and the center of the painting featured a “thing” that he believed to be himself. I also liked this painting because it has a lot of layers. Dali uses a variety of symbols and ideas to get his message across about his painting.

The painting and this entire art movement has always fascinated me. I find it to be more interesting and beautiful than all other types of art and I love to discover works of other surrealist artists.