Salvador Dali was a 19th century artist who was associated with the surrealist movement during his career. Dali was born on May 11, 1904 in Figueres, Spain and died on January 23, 1989 in the same town. Dali is best known for his contributions to realism including his “Paranoiac-Critical method” which he used to access the subconscious part of his mind in order to gain inspiration for his art. He is also known for being a versatile artist being involved in several fields like sculpture, printmaking, fashion, advertising, writing, and filmmaking; for which he famously collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock. Dali was nonetheless flamboyant in nature and was perceived by many to have been crazy.
“The Persistence of Memory” is a landscape painting with surrealistic and cubism attributes. The painting consists of a deformed face on the seemingly desert ground, ants on a gold watch, and three melting clocks resembling pizza dough on top of the face, a tree branch, and next to the gold watch. The painting also has realistic cliffs in the background that are similar to those found in Spain near Dali’s home and which, along with the sea, are perhaps the only realistic features in the painting.
This painting strongly portrays the aesthetic preferences of modernism because of its imaginative qualities of surrealism. The disfigured face on the ground naturally appears confusing to the average person. Aspects of the face are thought-provoking or even repulsive like the unusually long eye-lashes, the giant nose, and what appears to be a tongue just under the nose; many still question this “tongue” and believe it to be other things including saliva. The painting also shows some cubism aesthetics like the edges surrounding the sea and the ground under the tree. The juxtaposition of the tree, clocks, face, watch, and ants with the background are another indicator of surrealism in the painting.
“The Persistence of Memory” in the MoMa was among other apparently Modernistic paintings. What drew me to this piece outright was the bizarre appearance of the grey figure and the pizza-like clocks slouching on objects. It was not until I read about the painting that I realized that the grey figure was a face; I thought it had been a lying elephant or a simple blanket on the ground. I also love seeing and traveling to beautiful landscapes, like the one portrayed in the painting, in real life and so that also drew me to the painting. One question I would have for Dali is what the ants on the golden watch symbolized. Also, why is “time” in the painting apparently rotting? The ants and the fly on the clocks are puzzling. Another question I would have is on how Dali managed to get inspiration for this painting.
Resources:
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-dali-salvador.htm
http://www.dalipaintings.net/