The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali

Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali

      
        The Persistence of Memory is a painting by a famous Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali.Salvador Dali sometimes referred to his paintings as "hand-painted dream photographs" and The Persistence of Memory is certainly like that.The painting is a collection of ideas, that are to do with the interpretation of dreams, perception of reality,and time.


     The drooping pocket watches points out that when we are asleep  the time does not persist, only memories do.  There are four watches in this painting, three of which appear to be melted, as if made out of cheese. The only watch whose structure doesn't appear to be deformed - unlike other watches is the orange watch  sitting on a desk-like object. The ants seem to have found a point of interest in the center of the orange watch.Another detail that i noticed was that Dali uses light to express the ideas of the painting. There are two tiny rocks sitting in the sand on the beach in the background. The rock to the left is in the shadow, and the one to the right is lit.The ants, the three melted clocks and a fetus-like object all reside in the shade as well. Whereas, the mountains and the water are lit by sunlight.


             The melting clocks are nothing more than cheese left for too long of a period of time on the table on a warm sunny day (as Dali had previously described his inspiration for this painting, this is noted by Dali himself in his book, conveniently titled Diary of a Genius. According to Dali, he was a self-proclaimed genius). But  Dali would often make up ridiculous explanations for his paintings to purposely mislead people.Also the ants that are attacking the orange clock might show the anxiety associated with time.


Sources:
-http://www.dali-gallery.com/
-http://www.duke.edu/web/lit132/dalibio.html

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                                                                             Poem About Art

Time
It never ends
its like the clock keeps spinning and
the seconds,minutes,hours,and days
don't pass by.

The clocks melting as if we don't exist
the time stopping as if we want it to
the water, cliff shining bright gold as if
everything was okay.
The ants eating up the center of the clock,
the orange clock
the only one not melting
the only one not drooping
the only different one.

Oh how i feel when the clocks stop spinning
oh how i feel when the time doesn't matter
Salvador Dali oh why
why are the clocks drooping and melting down
it is like time, and life don't exist anymore.