Salvador Dali - The Persistence of Memory - Essay Example

Salvador Dali. The Persistence of Memory. 1931. Oil on canvas. The Spanish painter Salvador Dali who is among the surrealist painter is regarded as on one of the most enigmatic artists of the twentieth century. The Persistence of Memory which was painted in 1931 is his most famous work of art and was regarded as a Surrealist masterpiece. The melted clocks have drawn a number of questions and concerns in a bid to understand them. The meaning behind Surrealist Salvador Dalis artistic masterpiece The Persistence of Memory can be ascertained by a keen look into the painting.

In the painting, four clocks are prominently on display in an otherwise empty desert scene. While this might seem uncanny enough, the clocks are not flat as you might expect them to be, but are bent out of shape, appearing to be in the act of melting away. The melting aspect can be explained that the region in which they are located is a desert climatic zone which is marked by extremely high temperatures. In classic Surrealist manner, this weird and unexpected juxtaposition poses a lot of questions right up-front.

First and foremost one has to wonder why the clocks are melting or question their location in the desert. The finally question to ponder is the fact that there are no people around them. Since the subject matter and content of the Salvador Dalis clocks painting seems illogical or irrational, one might be surprised by the very representational and nearly photographic quality of the painting, fitting well with Dalis own description of his art as being hand-painted dream photographs. The concept of the dream in this case is integral in understanding Surrealism and plays a key role in the meaning of The Persistence of Memory, as well.

One of the goals of the Surrealists was to bring out the best visual representation of what it is like to be dreaming. As a result of this, Surrealism might seem a little crazy but every individual has had a case of dreams where unrelated people, places, or objects come together in completely inexplicable ways. The first part of coming up with a meaning for this painting is the understanding as well as the realization of the fact that Persistence of Memory most likely depicts a dream state (Fricke, et al, 112-124).

Upon the acceptance of the fact that the persistence of memory is a depiction of a dream state then it can be argued that the melting and distorted clocks symbolize the erratic passage of time that we experience while dreaming. If we are to consider the art through the perspective of a dream state, the distorted clocks dont have any power in the dream world and are melting away because of that. The painter aims at illustrating how useless, irrelevant, and arbitrary our normal concept of time is inside the dream state.

It is a fact of life that during our daily lives, were always rushed and busy, trying to get all of our work done on time. Many art scholars have been engaged in a number of debates over whether these timepieces are clocks or in fact pocket watches, very popular accessories in the 1920s and 30s, when the Surrealists worked. The Surrealists laughed at most things middle-class society takes seriously, and that includes the importance we place on things like pocket watches that mark passage of time.

Work Cited Fricke, Christiane, Ingo F. Walther, Klaus Honnef, Karl Ruhrberg, Manfred Schneckenburger, and Christiane Fricke. Art of the 20th Century, Volume 1: [painting, Sculpture, New Media, Photography]. Koln: Taschen, 2000. Print.