As a child I always found museums boring and not interesting. However, when I visited the Museum of Modern Art, my experience was different. I found that I actually became very interested in the environment and in the paintings there, and I am glad I took the experience. I went to the exhibition on the 5th floor, and I was fascinated. I’ve taken a couple of art classes throughout my years in school, and it was surreal seeing famous paintings by artists like Frida Kahlo, Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock. I have studied many of their famous paintings in the past, and it is certainly one thing to learn about them… but to see them in person is a completely different experience.
One artist who I’ve always had an interest in is Salvador Dali. Salvador Dali was a spanish artist whose presence lived in the 20th century. Perhaps the most famous and recognized piece he has is his painting “The Persistence of Memory.” I’ve always recognized this painting as the one with the melting clocks, but analyzing this painting deeper, there are definitely meanings behind it.
An aspect of modernism is to critique existing ideas and Salvador Dali did this with the concept of time. By the bent/melting clocks, he ridicules the concept of time. I believe the purpose of this is to convey that time does not really exist structurally and it is whatever you want it to be or make of it. He emphasizes this by painting not just one, but three melting clocks.
Mildred, This is one of Dali’s best known and most intriguing works. What do you mean when you suggest that he is “ridiculing” the concept of time? What do you think happens when clocks melt, as they seem to be doing here? What else is in this painting besides the clocks? How are the melting clocks connected to the title of the painting, “The Persistence of Memory”? What is the connection between memory and time?