The Persistence of Memory

“The Persistence of Memory,” painted in 1931 by Spanish surrealistic artist Salvador Dali, depicts a serene scene where there are decaying and melting clocks lying around. The grotesque mass in the middle of the painting is supposed to be a rendition of the artist’s profile. The realistic looking golden cliffs in the background are actual reality, they replicate the cliffs on the coast of Catalonia, Dali’s home province (Gregsometimes).

The art experience needed to duplicate this art piece in as little time as it took Dali, much less than a year (in 1931), is tremendous. His brushstrokes are barely visible, and only so with a microscope. The colors used fade so perfectly between one another with such realistic light, that viewers believe that this could be real (Gregsometimes).

There are many parts of this painting that are significant. (Usually when talking about surrealistic art, everything is significant.) The dark and light halves of the painting may signify the realism and surrealism that Dali loved to show in his work. In the lit half are the mountains of his childhood, the realistic part, and in the shadow are the melting clocks, the surrealistic part. The light and dark could also signify the known and the unknown or real life and dreams.

This painting is basically saying that, even though time will decay and lengthen(signified by the ants crowding the single clock and by the other clocks that look like they are melting), I will still remember (signified by his profile, one eye closed as though in thought.) The question, though, is what will he remember? A few different responses could be his childhood (because of the mountains in the background), or a woman (because of the extremely long eyelashes on his profile. Another question pertaining to this painting is why is there a plank or diving board in the background? Some questions such as this one remain unanswered.

Even if someone could go back in time to ask Dali what his painting meant and why he painted it, he still wouldn’t be much of a help. When asked what significance the clocks had in the painting he responded that the clocks signified the melting cheese he found in his studio one day. But, because Dali was known by most to purposefully mislead people from the actual meaning of his art, barely anyone believed this story (Gregsometimes).

[Disclaimer]—If you disagree with me at all about anything that I have written here, please post a comment! The most amazing thing about art, mainly surrealistic art, is that it can be interpreted many different ways!