VIS 104: Romanticism to Modernism
The Persistence of Memory
Li Kam Fung (1177824)
The Persistence of Memory
Artist: Salvador Dali (May 11, 1904 – January 23, 1989)
Year: 1931
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 24 cm × 33 cm (9.5 in × 13 in)
Location: Museum of Modern Art, New York City
The Persistence of Memory is a well-known Surrealism painting done by Dali. The features of Surrealism are shown in the painting. Such as the main objects, pocket clocks appear in a non-logical way or combining different real objects in a non-logical way, the pocket clocks are soft and melting, the table and dead wood are combinedin a strange way, the wood grows on a hard table. It produced a strong contrast with the soft pocket clocks - Softness and Hardness. Also, byviolation of the basic physical principles to produce an absurdity feeling, the hard case becomes soft as cloth. The painting also covered with mystery, fantasyand unreal feeling, just like a dream and illusion. Everything in the image seen unreal and not exist, even the table and thelandscape. The image can only appear in an unreal world, but not in our real world.
The painting is just like a dream, an unreal world covered by a stressful atmosphere. The main object - the pocket clocks are soft and melting in the image. It produces a strong contrast between "softness"and "hardness", which is a specific thinking of Dali. The clocks' case should be hard, but soft as cloth in the image. And the softness clocks land on the objects, whichare hard, the table and the dead wood. It seems that clocks represent time, and time is soft,breakable and fragile. Other objects are hard,strong and eternal. But in fact, only time is eternal and stay forever. But every objects and creatures will fade one day.
It is interesting in the middle of the image, there is a grey thing. After observed, find that it seems like a human's face. The strange face, Dali had used severaltimes to represent him. There is an eye and a noise on the face. And the eye is closed,seems that the creatures(Maybe Dali) is sleeping and in a dream state. Maybe the image is what the creature dreaming.It triggers a feeling of dreaming in the dream, and repeats again and again, just like time, repeat again and again. Just like fall in an endless nightmare. Some say the image was Dali’s experience. And in the left hand bottom corner, there is a pocket clock is covered with ants.That is a say that Dali often used ants as a symbol of death. And the clock reversed, just like the clock was damaged, time stopped. Does it mean when time end, life also end. In the middle of the image, it seems that that is a dead or fading creature under the grey face. It is dark in color and without any motion and emotion. Adding with the dead wood on the table produced an atmosphere of dead and nightmare. In the background, there is a normal landscape, but because the image is so unreal, make me feel double. And the sea is strange in the right hand side. One part of sea was being folded up.
Every part in the painting is so strange and in a non-logical way. Each object has that own deep meaning, such as pocket clocks represent time, ants and dead wood represent life and dead, etc. And the color tone and background created a strong atmosphere of stress make the image like a nightmare. And the meaningful part is the sleeping face in the middle, suffering in the nightmare. In the nightmare, there is another myself suffering in nightmare, again and again. Just like time, endless.
Question: Is time really endless? Is time really repeats again and again?
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1. <!--[endif]-->Painting and Sculpture in the Europe 1880-1940
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2. <!--[endif]-->Ades, Dawn. Dali.Thames and Hudson, 1982
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3. <!--[endif]-->The Persistence of Memory on Authentic Society
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4. <!--[endif]-->The Persistence of Memoryin the MoMA Online Collection
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