The Persistence of Memory

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The Persistence of Memory

Artist	Salvador Dalí
Year	1931
Type	oil on canvas
Dimensions	24 cm × 33 cm (9.5 in × 13 in)
Location	Museum of Modern Art, New York City

La persistencia de la memoria (1931) or The Persistence of Memory – also known by some as Melting Clocks – is the most famous painting by artist Salvador Dalí.

The painting has been in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City since 1934. It is very widely recognized, and is a frequent reference in popular culture.

[edit] Description

The well-known surrealistic piece introduced the image of the soft melting pocket watch. It epitomizes Dalí's theory of 'softness' and 'hardness', which was central to his thinking at the time.

Although fundamentally part of Dalí's Freudian phase, the imagery precedes by 14 years his transition to his scientific phase, which occurred after the dropping of the atomic bomb in 1945.^{[citation needed]}

It is possible to recognize a human figure in the middle of the composition, in the strange "monster" that Dalí used in several period pieces to represent himself – the abstract form becoming something of a self portrait, reappearing frequently in his work. The orange clock at the bottom left of the painting is covered in ants. Dali often used ants in his paintings as a symbol for death, as well as a symbol of female genitalia.

It is rumored that the painting was sprinkled with red wine shortly after it was complete, as was the Mona Lisa.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Versions

Salvador Dalí's sculpture from the series "Profile of Time" (1977-84), with motive of La persistencia de la memoria

Dalí returned to the theme of this painting with the variation The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1954), showing his earlier famous work systematically fragmenting into smaller component elements, and a series of rectangular blocks which reveal further imagery though the gaps between them, implying something beneath the surface of the original work; this work is now in the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, while the original Persistence of Memory remains at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Dalí also produced various lithographs and sculptures on the theme of soft watches late in his career.

[edit] See also

• Entropy (arrow of time)
• Surrealism

[edit] Notes

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2008)

[edit] External links

• The Persistence of Memory in the MoMA Online Collection
• "Keep your eyes wide shut" by Kelly Grovier in The Observer
• The mapping cylinder from the Fomenko et al. book
• Homotopic Topology

v • d • e Salvador Dalí List of works Selected paintings Landscape Near Figueras (1910) • Vilabertrin (1913) • Fiesta in Figueres (1914-16) • Port of Cadaqués (Night) (1918-19) • The Artist's Father at Llane Beach (1920) • The Garden of Llaner (Cadaqués) (1920-21) • Cabaret Scene (1922) • Cubist Self-Portrait with "La Publicitat" (1923) • Self-portrait with L'Humanitie (1923) • Portrait of Luis Bunuel (1924) • Siphon and Small Bottle of Rum (1924) • The Basket of Bread (1926) • Honey Is Sweeter Than Blood (1927) • The Lugubrious Game (1929) • The First Days of Spring (1929) • The Great Masturbator (1929) • The Persistence of Memory (1931) • The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used As a Table (1934) • Morphological Echo (1934-36) • Archaeological Reminiscence of Millet's Angelus (1935) • Autumn Cannibalism (1936) • Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) (1936) • The Burning Giraffe (1937) • Metamorphosis of Narcissus (1937) • Swans Reflecting Elephants (1937) • Apparition of Face and Fruit Dish on a Beach (1938) • The Sublime Moment (1938) • Shirley Temple, The Youngest, Most Sacred Monster of the Cinema in Her Time (1939) • The Face of War (1940) • Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire (1940) • Honey is Sweeter than Blood (1941) • Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening (1944) • Galarina (1944-45) • Basket of Bread (1945) • The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1946) • The Elephants (1948) • Leda Atomica (1949) • The Madonna of Port Lligat (1949) • Christ of Saint John of the Cross (1951) • Galatea of the Spheres (1952) • The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1952-54) • Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) (1954) • Young Virgin Auto-Sodomized by the Horns of Her Own Chastity (1954)  • The Sacrament of the Last Supper (1955) • Still Life Moving Fast (1956) • The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus (1958-59) • Tuna Fishing (1966-1967) • The Hallucinogenic Toreador (1968-1970) • La Toile Daligram (1972) • The Swallowtail (1983) • Other works Writings: L'Âge d'or (1930)  • Giraffes on Horseback Salad (1937)  • Libretto for Bacchanale (1939)  • Films: Un chien andalou (1929)  • Spellbound (1945, dream sequence) Animated Films: Destino (1946, 2003) Logos: Chupa Chups Opera: Être Dieu (1985) Sculpture: Lobster Telephone (1936)  • Mae West Lips Sofa (1937) Costumes: Costumes for Lorca's Play Mariana Pineda (1927) Related articles Castle of Púbol • Dalí Universe • Espace Dalí • Dalí Theatre and Museum • Salvador Dalí Museum • Salvador Dalí (film) • Gala Dalí • Paranoiac-critical method