Author: Salvador Dalí
Technique: Oil on canvas
Style: Surrealism
Dimensions: 9.5 in × 13 in
Location: Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Undoubtedly this has been the most complicated analysis that I have done so far, this work offers many scattered elements that generate different possibilities of interpretation, the distance of each figure and its independence from the rest, make it seem impossible that a conclusion may be synthesized, they are different pieces that don’t fit to complete a puzzle, or maybe I’m making the mistake of thinking that everything fits in a surrealist work.

"The persistence of memory" also known as "The melted clocks" or "The soft watches" is the most recognized work of the Catalan painter Salvador Dalí. This was completed in 1931 and that same year it was exhibited to the public for the first time in the Pierre Colle Gallery in Paris between June 3 and 15. From 1934 to the present it has belonged to the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

In "The persistence of memory" the main theme is time, but is not the only one, others themes are also explored due to its intense symbolism. Dalí wants to show us the inevitable passage of time, but not of a time as an independent component of reality, but of one that is part and depends on space. A few years ago Albert Einstein had discovered the theory of relativity and Dalí was aware of this approach, that is why the clocks are melted, to show that time is not absolute, but that it varies when space is deformed.

About the painting and it's relation with space-time Dalí would say the following:

From them (the clocks) I am historically the one who has managed to solve the space time equation, but all my art translates the quality of the most modern anguish, as expression of a delirium that surpasses all the dynamisms of the real. Time can’t be conceived except space.

This painting is surrealist, this artistic movement was created in 1924 by Andre Breton in his famous manifesto. The Surrealists, inspired in a certain way by the Freudian theories, believed that the only genuine form of expression was accessing the subconscious. To achieve this, they used techniques such as automatism or reflexive disorientation.

They also considered that in dreams you could reach that mental state in which reason can’t limit what you want to express, the human thought in its purest state without ties, this surrealist influence made Dalí often reflect what he dreamed in his works.

Analysis

At first glance we can see a simple landscape, in the background there is a sea that is confused with the sky and on the right a cliff, it is usually associated with a Costa Brava landscape, very common in the work of the painter. In the foreground to the left, there is a block of wood, which fulfills the functions of a table, on it there are two clocks and a small tree, one of the branches of this tree also hangs a third clock. In the center of the picture stands out a strange figure that seems to be a face, the fourth clock is on it.

Each clock has a particular characteristic. Of the two that are on the table, the first is a pocket watch that stands firm (unlike the other three) and has ants around it, it's also associated with eroticism since this is the one nearest to the genitals, the second is melted in the edge of the table and on it rests a fly. The symbolism of these animals is that, as is well known, both ants and flies are always close to the rotten and decadent, in this case, the clocks.

The third clock is the most curved of all, it remains on the branch of the tree without leaves that protrudes from the table, one of its hands points directly at number 6 but the other is not visible. The fourth and last one is on the rock that vaguely resembles a face (that sleeps) because of its outstanding lashes and nose, this face does not stand firm either, it is deformed. This face can represent the mortality of the human being, but it is also said that it can be a self-portrait of Dalí since it was a very common element in other of his paintings.

These clocks represent different realities, the hours they indicate do not coincide, although they are similar. At the same moment, the viewer can visualize different temporalities, the deformation of the clocks shows the relativity of time. The passage of time has left its mark melting them, but even so, they continue fulfilling their function of giving the time.

Although the presentation is realistic in its techniques, the relationship of the objects and their strange dimensions show us an incongruous image and without much logic, which causes us confusion together with a sense of loneliness caused by the wide spaces of the landscape.

With regard to light, we see that the painting is divided into two non-symmetrical parts: on the right an area completely dominated by darkness, while on the left and at the bottom of the painting, where the most important objects are located, there is a a light source that comes from the sky that illuminates them gently and makes them project shade. This contrast between the types of lights helps to create a dreamlike atmosphere.

The colors used are varied, the cold tones (blue, white and gray) contrast with the warm ones (yellow and brown). It is appreciated that the warm tones approach us to the forms increasing the details and the cold ones make that they lose definition in the contours.

After this analysis a little detailed, highlights the fact that the cliff lit by the twilight is far from the clocks, the landscape is the element that seems not to be affected by the passage of time.

Curiosities

-It can’t be seen very well in the painting, but there is the signature of Dalí where OLIVE SALVADOR DALI is read. Olive was one of the ways Dalí called Gala in private because she said that Gala's face was oval and the color of her skin was like an olive.

-In an interview in 1935, Dalí said that for the realization of these clocks he had been inspired by the Camembert cheese:

You can be sure that my famous melted clocks are nothing but the camembert cheese of space and time, which is tender, extravagant, solitary and paranoid-critical

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