The persistence of Dalí's memory: analysis and meaning of painting

The Persistence of Memory It is a painting by the surrealist painter Salvador Dalí, which was executed in 1931 in less than five hours. The work has small dimensions, 24 x 33 cm.

This painting was made one day when Dalí was unwell to go to the cinema with his wife and his friends. While home alone, the artist painted what would become one of the most famous paintings in art history. Indeed, the work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) in New York since 1934.

Surrealism is an artistic school that is born from literature and that proclaims great creative freedom. It moves away from formalism and searches the unconscious, in that which flees from reality, its raw material.

The term was coined by André Breton in the Surrealist Manifesto of 1924 and is in the context of the European artistic avant-gardes, although not the first, but those of the period of between the wars. Strongly influenced by Freud's psychoanalytic theories, Surrealism attempts to move away from the rational logic in artistic productions, with a view to revealing the subconscious of the individuals.

The result is a symbolic art, full of elements that come out of rationality and the obvious. This is achieved by stripping everyday objects from the logic that surrounds them. An example par excellence of this movement is the work of Salvador Dalí, specifically The Persistence of Memory.

Analysis of The Persistence of Memoryby Dalí

The works of the surrealist style give rise to different interpretations, since they are loaded with great symbolism and have few conventional representations of reality. The Persistence of Memory addresses the notion of temporality and memory. It does so through a particular plastic language that exalts objects, loaded with great symbolism, such as the clocks that melt, the ants that walk on a steady clock that hides the mark of time, the self-portrait of the painter and the scenery.

The melted clocks

Melting clocks represent time that passes differently. Contrary to common clocks, which accurately mark the passing of the seconds, these Dalí clocks have different markings, as their pointers are melted and suggest a distorted notion of seconds.

As an object, clocks can be recognized without problem, but because they are deprived of their form and use Conventionals provoke strangeness in the viewer, from which the reflection on the object itself and its function.

Ants on the clock

The only watch that is not deformed is the one that is turned upside down and has ants on it. Salvador Dalí did not like ants very much and he used to use them as a symbol of putrefaction in his works. This shows how this everyday object is despised by the painter under the surrealist gaze.

Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, many believed that photography would take the place of painting, which was conceived as an imitation of nature, so they considered that the discipline was in decline. The artistic avant-gardes emerged, among other things, as a way to overcome this challenge and give a new meaning to the visual arts.

One of the ways out found by the avant-garde was to decontextualize objects, deform them and seek new modes of representation. This specific resource, in addition to constituting a creative contribution aesthetically speaking, promoted reflection on the things that go unnoticed on a daily basis.

The watch is a common object that everyone has seen or used. Generally not much attention is paid to it, despite being responsible for marking the hours and guiding everyone's agenda. When Dalí defaces the clock, he makes one perceive the importance of this small object in life.

More about him Surrealism: main characteristics and artists.

Real time is the time of the unconscious

Memory is a way of marking the passage of time, an internal and subjective way. The time of memory is not the same as that of an ordinary clock: a moment that has happened long ago can be remembered as something recent, whereas the day before may appear to have happened a long time behind.

Portrait of the painter

This subjective notion of time is explored by Dalí in this painting. The painter's own figure appears in the scene sleeping under a melted clock. The place of the dream is also the place where temporality assumes other realities.

Frame time The Persistence of Memory it is not real time. It is, rather, the time of the unconscious. It is known that Dalí was influenced by some theories of Freud, according to whom "The dream is the path that leads to the unconscious".

Dalí's search for the unconscious is reflected in the painting by his self-representation. Temporality is on another plane.

Landscape

In the midst of all the surreal figurations and representations, Salvador Dalí's painting presents us in the background a landscape that corresponds to some coastal cliffs in Catalonia, a close view of his house. It is the path of reality, what remains or remains of reality in this dream scene.

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Meaning of The Persistence of Memoryby Dalí

The Persistence of Memory it is a subjective vision of temporality and its implications, be it in the work of art itself or in memories. It is also a tribute to the inner time of the unconscious, which has its own way of telling itself and which flees from superficial rationality.

The unconscious is essential matter for Dalí and his timelessness is represented in his works in many ways. For this reason, in this painting the use of clocks that melt when exposed to the persistence of memory shines.

The work also leads to metalinguistic questioning. How can art be part of memory and not be forgotten? It is the reason that leads the subject who produces the work to seek immortality in his paintings.

* Translated and adapted byAndrea Imaginario

University professor, singer, Bachelor of Arts (Cultural Promotion mention), Master of Literature Compared by the Central University of Venezuela, and PhD candidate in History at the Autonomous University of Lisbon.