Persistence Of Memory

Salvador Dali's

Persistence of Memory

By ESQ

The Persistence of Memory

The Persistence of Memory is perhaps the single most identifiable piece of art that is associated with Salvador Dali. It was completed in 1931 and the media used by the artist was oil paint on canvas. The painting measures 9 ½ inches x 13 inches and is currently being presented in the Museum of Modern Art in New York as a permanent collection.

Iconography

GENRE: Representational Art. (Representational Surrealism)

The Persistence of Memory depicts objects and things that are easily recognizable in our everyday experience/world. These objects included watches, a body of water, skyline, rocky cliffs or mountains, a tree trunk and man- made concrete structures that have a geometric (rectangular) shape. This representational art form is also surrealistic in nature. The three “limp/melting/soft” watches and the seemingly extraterrestrial figure that looks very much like a profile of a person’s head(probably that of Dali’s own) elevates the art form into a dreamy/fantastic realm that is quite different from our own natural world.

STYLE:

The Persistence of Memory is categorized as a Surrealistic work.

Salvador Dali has been intrinsically linked to the Surrealist movement begun by Andre Breton in 1924. Surrealism was heavily influenced by the Dadaist movement as well as the psychoanalytic methodology of Sigmund Freud. Surrealism employs images and visions from dreamlike states which are believed to be unconsciously activated and then portrayed as represented images in art form which must then be consciously critiqued and interpreted for meaning. Dali’s use of vibrant color and portrayal of both natural and surrealistic objects seem to indicate a dreamlike realm that is nevertheless quite believable, however absurd it may be. There are elements of real objects, distorted but real objects as well as objects that are neither real nor distorted or both real and distorted.

ANALYSIS:

The main focus of the art piece is apparently the three seemingly melting or soft watches that are draped on three separate and different surfaces. One watch hangs over the only solitary branch of a dead/dying tree. Below the tree, another watch is laid on the edge of a man-made structure that is perhaps concrete and rectangular in shape. A big fly or flying insect is on its face. Next to the watch and in a descending diagonal order is another time piece that has been overturned with the metallic copper back piece showing. Insect like creatures looking like ants seem to form a symmetrical pattern on its back surface. This is the only watch that still retains its original harden shape and is set aside a triangular formation. Besides having its back and not its front (face) showing, it also seems to be the smallest in dimension and may also be made of a different material (copper brown) instead of the fluid blue color/shape of the other three watches. The last melting/soft watch lies on an amorphous grayish figure on the darkened ground. This nebulous looking figure seems to take on a partially human form with long eyelashes, eyelids, eyebrows, a nose, a chin and a tongue like protrusion. An elongated shape seem to round up the mysterious figure where the neck could have been positioned. A rectangular structure shaped like a flat platform is shown in the distance beyond the trunk of the tree. This structure seems to border the edge of the horizon where the ground meets the water. The blue color of the water seems to reflect the dark blue skyline. The body of water also reflects the edges of a mountainous rock formation to its right. The mountainous formation shows jagged edges and cracks that may have been caused from natural land form activity and the weathering process.

INTERPRETATION:

The Persistence of Memory is an attempt to capture the essence or understanding (concept) of the spatial and temporal realm in its relationship to the “totality” of the human psyche that is both conscious and subconscious. The artwork encompasses elements of the natural, unnatural (man-made), and supernatural (surreal). The natural elements are represented by the tree trunk, mountain, water, sky, ground, and insects (ants and fly). The man made objects are the overturned hard time-piece and the two concrete rectangular shape platforms. The surreal objects are represented by the three overhanging watches that seem to be limp, soft, or melting, and, the amorphous figure resembling the profile of Dali’s head lying on the ground.

The entire picture is interjected with vibrant coloration giving it a quality that is like a fantastic “dream scape” that demands further interpretation. A sense of mysteriousness prevails when we are presented with ordinary everyday objects that look so familiar and yet some form of distortion, addition and introduction of phenomena, forces us to reorganize our conceptual understanding of “what really constitutes reality”.

The blue skyline with the reflection in the body of water below it seem to convey a calming effect and fluidity of infinite space, whereas, the bluish faces on the three soft watches tended to show a disintegration and the relativity of time while suspended in a spatial-temporal moment. The flat blue rectangular shaped platform situated on the edge and abutting the land and water horizon, seems to impose a sense of man-made structure of reality in contrast to the infinity of time and space. The brownish and much greater geometric block of concrete could also symbolize and reinforce a man-made structure that holds up nature (tree trunk and insects), while interjecting itself with formulated notions of object-concept (hard and soft watches). The great brownish block complements the color of the ground taking up nearly two thirds of the picture, seemingly to exemplify the natural state of nature that is barren and stripped to its core.

The grayish amorphous figure resembling Dali’s profile, complements the color of the dead/dying tree trunk and the grey rims of the two limp watches draped over the tree branch and body of the figure lying on the ground. The grey color seem to indicate the power of “death” or the impending mortality of life and the annihilation of all living forms whether found in nature or created in our subconscious world. In contrast to this grim picture, are the bright yellowish and golden colors of the sky, rocky mountain formation, and the bright golden rim of the third and largest limp watch hanging over the brown concrete shape. These bright yellowish-golden colors seem to give a sense of value, majesty and overcoming of any temporal impending peril. It represents a glimpse of light and life itself, a meaningful struggle to understand and encompass life’s mysteries that is governed by space and time. The solidity of the mountains seems to provide strength against the ever changing forces of nature and time. Some believe that the mountains resemble the conscious memories of Dali’s Catalan landscape.

Insects looking like ants form a symmetrical pattern on the back surface of the only “hard” watch. This brownish-copper time piece is set apart from the other “soft” watches that seem to form a triangular shape in a melting array. It is also the only timepiece that is overturned, with a huge army of little ant like creatures which seem to be decorating its surface. A huge fly is also prominently displayed on the melting surface of the nearby golden rimmed limp watch. The insects presented bring to mind an association of organic decay to either man-made objects (watches) or man-structured concepts (time).

The mysterious grey figure on the ground exhibits facial features such as long eyelashes, eyebrows, eyelids, a nose and possibly a protruding tongue while seemly to be either asleep, resting or even dead. It exists as a creation or creature from our dream state or

Subconscious. It looks very much like the profile of Dali himself but it could also represent the anonymity of any human being in a strangely attractive-repulsive manner.

The surrealistic dream scape of Dali’s Persistence of Memory avails itself to almost infinite interpretations. It is very much like our humanly constructed conceptualization of spatial and temporal order, including the physical realms of nature and the metaphysical psyche of our consciousness and subconscious, in our attempt and struggle to define, understand, and, live the dialectic of time-space and existence.