Artist:
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Salavador Dali
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Title:
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The Persistence of Memory
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Year:
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1931
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Medium:
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Oil on canvas
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Dimension:
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24 x 33cm
The persistence of memory is an oil
painting which has been categorized as Surrealism. It is created by a prominent
Spanish painter called Salvador Dali in 1931 and is one of his most memorable
Surrealist works. The type of this artwork is oil on canvas and its dimension
is 24cm X 33cm. It has been a collection of Museum of Modern Art in New York
City.[1]
The persistence of memory is a classic portrayal of the dream-like interpretation
of simple objects and shapes distorted or transformed into some unrecognizable
forms.[2]
Therefore, it is categorized as Surrealism.
Talking about Surrealism, it is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s. It aims at "resolving the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality." Artists painted unnerving, illogical scenes with photographic precision, created strange creatures from everyday objects and developed painting techniques that allowed the unconscious to express a concept or idea.[3] Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur.[4] “The persistence of Memory” is a good example of surrealism.
Look at this painting visually, the beach and rocky terrain shown in the
painting were a memorable place in Dali’s childhood.[5] Within
this landscape, it showed a very quiet and lonely environment.
It gives the feeling that time is unimportant and no one would care what is happening around. Even for the water in the background, there is no wave in it. There is almost no movement in this picture.
Moreover, the things that were being rendered in this picture are not
naturalistic at all. For example, the dead tree on the left seems growing out
from the top of an artificial table. Besides, the ants at the left hand corner
of the picture are eating and attracted to a piece of metal as oppose to a
piece of rotted flesh, it looks like they are eating a time piece. And obviously,
there are some drooping clocks like they are melting, one is on the top of the table,
the other one is in the background and one is lying on a white object. This violates the basic physical principles such that the hard objects become soft as cloth. This produced a feeling of absurdity. In fact, Dali
frequently used the philosophy of hard and soft in his paintings. The image of
the soft melting pocket watches epitomizes Dalí's theory of 'softness' and
'hardness', which was central to his thinking at the time.[6] It is
concluded that the melting watches symbolized the irrelevance of time. According
to Dalí, the soft
watches were not inspired by the theory of relativity, but by the surrealist
perception of a Camembert cheese melting in the sun.[7]
Besides, it is wondered that what is the white object that lying on the
sand. Some art historian concluded that this strange figure just like a profile
face. In my opinion, I thought it was a blanket at the very first time. Later,
it is discovered that there is an eye with extremely long lashes and there is a
tongue under a nose. Dali created an optical illusion which one object can be
several things at once. Moreover, for this head-like
object that lying on the ground, it’s eyes are closed, this suggested that
what’s being observed refers to dream state, or a process which related to
imagination and things that are unseen by natural eye.[8] This is very
interesting and special.
The whole painting is under a mystery and fantasy atmosphere with
unreal feeling, just like a dream and illusion. Everything in the image can
only appear in an unreal world, they cannot exist in reality.
Although every part in the painting is weird and in a non-logical way, each object has its own deep meaning, such as drooping clocks is one of the symbols that showing the irrelevance of time.[9] In other words, when we are asleep, or not conscious, the time does not persist, only memories do. This distortion of time can be easily observed by just about anyone who ever attempted to think about the nature of their own dreams. [10] While ants and dead wood acts as a symbol of decay and death. Besides, the color tone and background created a strong atmosphere of stress make the image like a nightmare. For the profiled face that lying on the sand, it showed a sleeping face which suffering in the nightmare. In the nightmare, there is another myself suffering in nightmare, again and again, just like time is endless.
Talking about the lighting of this artwork, in
tradition of early classical painters, Dali’s paintings are illuminated by a
bright, golden light. Dali’s light is cast into the unseen valleys of inner
space, where lobsters are lukewarm telephones. Where ants munch on clock’s
hands. Where Sardines and cheese can be visually eaten by the observer’s eye,
and just like in a dream state, taken literally without second thought.[11]
In conclusion, with everything around us
weaved around time, memories and their interpretations, this painting is
something everybody can relate to and interpret in their own way. This in fact
is one of the specialties of surreal art works; the hallucinations and
illustrations of these works are captivating and at the same time unleash the
human potential to decipher hidden meanings.
Lastly, this
painting provokes a questions, is time really endless? Does it repeat again and
again?
Reference List:
1. Robert Descharnes and Gillies Neret. Salvador Dali. (Benedict Taschen Verlag GmbH Original Edition, 1990), 67
2.
The Meaning of "The Persistence of
Memory" By Contributing Writer
eHow Contributor. http://www.ehow.com/facts_5161691_meaning-persistence-memory.ht
ml
3. Surrealism From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism
4. Wahoo Art.com “The Persistence of Memory, 1931”,
Oil on Canvas By Salvador Dali (1904-1989, Spain)
http://en.wahooart.com/.@@/5ZKEYB-Salvador-Dali-The-Persistence-of-Memory,-1931
5. Asian Emerging Artists Buy Limited Edition
Prints, Art Loft Asia “The Persistence of Memory”, Totally History, http://totallyhistory.com/the-persistence-of-memory/
6. Authetic Society
Learning Website, “Meaning of The Persistence of Memory (c. 1931) by
Salvador Dali” http://www.authenticsociety.com/about/ThePersistenceOfMemory_Dali
7. Stroke
Park School, released on on May 11,
2010, “Salvador
Dali: The_Persistence_of_Memory”, The Blog Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sps-trust/4599139814/
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