The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali
The Persistence of Memory is a Surrealist piece created by Salvador Dali, created in 1931. Since this is a surrealist piece it follows many of the characteristics of the style, which are the work having a sense of surprise and unexpected juxtapositions. The Persistence of Memory is also known as the Melting Clocks, in my mind the most interesting part about this piece is the fact that Dali was a philosopher as well as an artist, this makes me want to look harder for the meaning of the piece. According to http://www.authenticsociety.com/about/ThePersistenceOfMemory_Dali, “Dali’s artistic genius lies in his ability to create ideas that lie on the edge between being disturbing and arousing curiosity.”
There have been many views on what Dali was trying to convey when painting The Persistence of Memory. Things have been said along the lines that the piece is trying to say how time is irrelevant. It is also believed that Dali got the idea from a mixture of a dream and watching cheese melt throughout the day, it is hard to tell what he really wanted to say. There are a couple of details I find very interesting in this piece. First the ants on the watch on the bottom left of the piece, many experts believe that this is one of Salvador Dali’s symbol’s for death. Another really interesting part of this piece is the strange object in the center of the piece, it is something that is in many of Dali’s pieces, this is believed to represent himself. Finally there is the light in the piece, the majority of the piece is dark, but the mountains in the back right of the piece.
During the time of The Persistence of Memory creation the United States was in the Great Depression. This was a hard time for many American’s, causing millions of people to lose their jobs. In November of 1931 a new exhibit was opened at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art called “Newer Super-Realism.” The Persistence of Memory was one of the pieces in the exhibit, the reactions to the exhibit in general where interesting because it was in a very hard time for many people. The art director at Wadsworth Antheneum Museum of Art, A. Everett Austin Jr. said, “These pictures are chic. They are entertaining. They are of the moment. We do not have to take them too seriously. We need not demand necessarily that they be important. . . . We can laugh at them. Some of them are sinister and terrifying, but so are the tabloids. . . . Sensational, yes, but after all the painting of our day must compare with the movie thriller and the scandal sheet.” Which to me is an interesting reaction to the Surrealist pieces, I’m not drawn to the pieces because of the reasons Austin mentioned, but more because of how obscure they are. At the same time I think that sort of view of the pieces was important in order to change peoples
