View source for The Persistence of Memory

{{Short description|Painting by Salvador Dalí (1931)}}
{{About|the painting by Salvador Dalí||The Persistence of Memory (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox artwork
| image_file         = The Persistence of Memory.jpg
| image_size         = 400px
| title              = The Persistence of Memory
| other_language_1   =
| other_title_1      =
| artist             = [[Salvador Dalí]]
| year               = {{start date|1931}}
| catalogue          = [https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79018 79018]
| accession          = 162.1934
| medium             = [[Oil painting|Oil on canvas]]
| length_metric      =
| height_imperial    = 9.5
| width_imperial     = 13
| length_imperial    =
| diameter_metric    =
| diameter_imperial =
| dimensions         =
| metric_unit        = cm<!--don't leave this parameter blank—either don't include it, or include the default cm. Not including it will default it to cm.-->
| imperial_unit      = in<!--don't leave this parameter blank—either don't include it, or include the default in. Not including it will default it to in.-->
| city               = [[New York City]]
| museum             = [[Museum of Modern Art]]
| coordinates        = <!-- Only use for the exact coordinates of the artwork itself (and only where known) and not for the coordinates of the museum. Leave blank if coordinates are not known. -->
| owner              = [[Museum of Modern Art]]
| movement           = [[Surrealism]]
}}

'''''The Persistence of Memory''''' ({{langx|ca|La persistència de la memòria}}, {{langx|es|La persistencia de la memoria}}) is a 1931 [[painting]] by artist [[Salvador Dalí]] and one of the most recognizable works of [[Surrealism]]. First exhibited at the [[Julien Levy Gallery]] in 1932 and sold for $250, ''The Persistence of Memory'' was donated to the [[Museum of Modern Art]] (MoMA) in [[New York City]] two years later in 1934 by an anonymous donor, where it has remained ever since.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Salvador Dalí. The Persistence of Memory. 1931 {{!}} MoMA |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79018 |access-date=2025-07-26 |website=The Museum of Modern Art |language=en}}</ref> It is widely recognized and frequently referred to in popular culture,<ref>{{cite news|last=<!--staff byline; no author given-->|title=Dali, The Flamboyant Surrealist|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Z2lcAAAAIBAJ&dq=dal%C3%AD%20melting%20watch&pg=4025%2C4123936|access-date=20 June 2011|newspaper=The Vindicator|date=28 January 1989|quote=The death of Salvador Dali evokes the image of his most famous painting, ''Persistence of Memory''.}}</ref> and sometimes referred to by more descriptive titles, such as "The Melting Clocks", "The Soft Watches" or "The Melting Watches".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-12-12 |title=The Persistence of Memory, 1931 - Salvador Dali |url=https://www.wikiart.org/en/salvador-dali/the-persistence-of-memory-1931#:~:text=%E2%80%9CMelting%20Clocks%E2%80%9D%2C%20%E2%80%9CThe%20Soft%20Watches%E2%80%9D%20and%20%E2%80%9CThe%20Melting%20Watches |access-date=2024-06-23 |website=Wikiart |at="Article": Lines 2-3 |quote=Frequently referenced in popular culture, the small canvas (24x33 cm) is sometimes known as “Melting Clocks”, “The Soft Watches” and “The Melting Watches”.}}</ref>

==Analysis==
The well-known [[surrealist]] piece introduced the image of the soft melting [[pocket watch]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Bradbury|first=Kirsten|title=Essential Dalí|year=1999|publisher=Dempsey Parr|isbn=978-1-84084-509-9|quote=It includes the first appearance of what is perhaps his most enduring image: the 'soft watch'.}}</ref> It epitomizes Dalí's theory of "softness" and "hardness", which was central to his thinking at the time. As [[Dawn Adès]] wrote, "The soft watches are an unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time, a Surrealist meditation on the collapse of our notions of a fixed cosmic order".<ref>Ades, Dawn. Dalí. Thames and Hudson, 1982.</ref> This interpretation suggests that Dalí was incorporating an understanding of the world introduced by [[Albert Einstein]]'s [[theory of special relativity]]. Asked by [[Ilya Prigogine]] whether this was the case, Dalí replied that the soft watches were not inspired by the theory of relativity, but by the surrealist perception of a [[Camembert]] melting in the sun.<ref>{{cite video |people=Salvador Dali |date=2008 |title=The Dali Dimension: Decoding the Mind of a Genius |format=DVD |publisher=Media 3.14-TVC-FGSD-IRL-AVRO|url=http://www.dalidimension.com/eng/index.html|quote=Surprisingly, Dalí said that his soft watches were not inspired by the theory of relativity, but by the surrealist perception of a Camembert cheese melting in the sun. The painter insisted on this explanation in his reply letter to Prigogine, who took it as Dalí's reaction to Einstein's coldly mathematical theory.}}</ref>

The year prior to painting the ''Persistence of Memory,'' Dali developed his "[[paranoiac-critical method]]," deliberately inducing psychotic hallucinations to inspire his art. He remarked, "The difference between a madman and me is that I am not mad." This quote highlights Dali's awareness of his mental state. Despite his engagement in activities that could be seen as insane, Dali maintained that he was not actually mad.<ref>{{Cite web |access-date=2024-05-31 |title=Salvador Dali |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79018 |website=The Museum of Modern Art}}</ref>
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | video1 =[https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/dada-and-surrealism/xdc974a79:surrealism/v/salvador-dal-the-persistence-of-memory-1931 Dali's ''The Persistence of Memory'']<ref name="smart">{{cite web | title =Dali's The Persistence of Memory |publisher =Khan Academy | url =https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/dada-and-surrealism/xdc974a79:surrealism/v/salvador-dal-the-persistence-of-memory-1931 | access-date =January 4, 2024}}</ref> | video2 =[http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=79018 Salvador Dalí. ''The Persistence of Memory''. 1931]<ref name="PoM MoMa">{{cite web | title =Salvador Dalí. The Persistence of Memory. 1931 | publisher =MoMa | url =http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=79018 | access-date =December 31, 2012}}</ref> }}

In the center of the painting, beneath the rightmost clock, is a distorted human face in profile. The monstrous, fleshy creature (with much texture near its face, and much contrast and tone in the picture) draped across the painting's center is at once alien and familiar. It is an approximation of Dali's own face, elevating the piece from pure abstraction into something of a self-portrait. Similar creatures appear frequently in Dali's work, most notably resembling a being who appears in his earlier painting ''[[The Great Masturbator]].''<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=The Persistence of Memory {{!}} Description & Meaning {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Persistence-of-Memory |access-date=2025-07-26 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> The creature seems to have been originally modeled after a figure from the ''Paradise'' section of [[Hieronymus Bosch]]'s ''[[The Garden of Earthly Delights]]'', which Dalí had studied.<ref>{{cite book |last1=De la Croix |first1=Horst |last2=Tansey |first2=Richard G. |last3=Kirkpatrick |first3=Diane |title=Gardner's Art Through the Ages |date=1991 |publisher=Thomson/Wadsworth |isbn=0-15-503769-2 |edition=9th |page=[https://archive.org/details/gardnersartthrou00gard/page/984 984] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/gardnersartthrou00gard/page/984 }}</ref> It can be read as a "fading" creature, one that often appears in dreams where the dreamer cannot pinpoint the creature's exact form and composition. The creature has one closed eye with several eyelashes, suggesting that it is also in a dream state. The iconography may refer to a dream that Dalí himself had experienced, and the clocks may symbolize the passing of time as one experiences it in sleep or the persistence of time in the eyes of the dreamer.

The orange watch at the bottom left of the painting is covered in ants, and does not melt. Its firmness contrasts with the dreamlike mutability of the others, offering a grounded counterpoint in an otherwise warped landscape. The usage of ants to symbolize decay is a recurring theme throughout Dali's artwork.<ref>{{cite web|title=Dalinian symbolism I Salvador Dalí I Espace Dalí|url=http://daliparis.com/en/salvador-dali/dalinian-symbols|website=daliparis.com|access-date=4 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140925181611/http://daliparis.com/en/salvador-dali/dalinian-symbols|archive-date=25 September 2014|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=MoMA I Salvador Dalí. The Persistence of Memory|url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79018|website=moma.org|publisher=Museum of Modern Art (New York)|access-date=24 May 2023}}</ref> In the 1929 ''[https://galeriamarcdomenech.com/lamic-de-les-arts-art-i-poesia-a-sitges-1926-1929/ L'amic de les arts]'' published essay entitled ''The Liberation of Fingers'', Dali described seeing a lizard decomposed and eaten by ants when he was three or four years old. Another incident that profoundly affected him as a child is recounted in his book, ''The Secret of Life''. His cousin gave him a wounded bat, which he adored and left overnight in a little pail in the wash-house. 'Next morning a frightful spectacle awaited me. When I reached the back of the wash-house I found the glass had overturned, and the bat, though still half alive, bristling with frenzied ants'"<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dalí (World of Art) |url=https://www.thamesandhudson.com/products/dali-world-of-art |access-date=2025-07-26 |website=Thames & Hudson |language=en}}</ref>. A fly perched atop the leftmost open-facing watch appears to be casting a human shadow as the sun hits it. This insect has long served as a metaphor for the fleeting and corruptible nature of life, and Dali's inclusion of it reinforces the painting's meditation on the instability and impermanence of time. The presence of the fly is often reflective of decay and ephemeral, which underscores the theme that time is not only fluid but also mortal and vulnerable. ''The Persistence of Memory'' employs "the exactitude of realist painting techniques"<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7qeHVrQ5X-MC&q=exactitude+realist+painting+techniques&pg=PA223|title=Surrealism and Architecture|first=Thomas|last=Mical|date=October 22, 2005|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=9780415325196|access-date=October 22, 2019|via=Google Books}}</ref> to depict imagery more likely to be found in dreams than in waking consciousness, while his melting-clock imagery mocks the rigidity of chronometric time.

The craggy rocks to the right represent the tip of [[Cap de Creus]] peninsula in north-eastern [[Catalonia]]. Many of Dalí's paintings were inspired by the landscapes of his life in Catalonia. The strange and foreboding shadow in the foreground of this painting is a reference to {{interlanguage link|Puig Pení|ca}},<ref>[http://www.moodbook.com/history/modernism/salvador-dali-surreal.html Salvador Dali. Surreal years. Art, paintings, and works.] Commentary on 40+ works of art by Salvador Dalí.</ref> a mountain in the northeast corner of Catalonia. The elongated and distorted tree on the left, is an iconic characters in Dali's works.<ref>{{Cite web |last=SINGULART |date=2023-12-05 |title=The Persistence of Memory: Understanding Dali's Masterpiece |url=https://www.singulart.com/blog/en/2023/12/05/the-persistence-of-memory-by-salvador-dali/ |access-date=2025-09-22 |website=Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Versions==
[[File:DisintegrationofPersistence.jpg|thumb|''The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory'' (1954)]]
[[File:Nobility of Time - Salvador Dali - Shanghai copy - 1.jpg|thumb|The Shanghai copy of the sculpture ''Nobility of Time'']]
Dalí returned to the theme of this painting with the variation ''[[The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory]]'' (La desintegración de la persistencia de la memoria,1954), showing his earlier famous work systematically fragmenting into smaller component elements, and a series of rectangular blocks which reveal further imagery through the gaps between them; adding, notably, an ominous suggestion of bullets to the original. The bullet-like forms are said to reflect Dali's growing preoccupation with atomic science and the destructive forces unleashed in the modern era, aligning with his broader shift into what he termed 'nuclear mysticism'.<ref name=":0" /> This work is now in the [[Salvador Dalí Museum]] in [[St. Petersburg, Florida]], while the original ''Persistence of Memory'' remains at the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in [[New York City]]. Dalí also produced various [[lithograph]]s and [[sculpture]]s on the theme of soft watches late in his career. Some of these sculptures are ''Persistence of Memory'', ''Nobility of Time'', ''Profile of Time'', and ''Three Dancing Watches''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dalis Sculpture Editions |url=https://dalisculptures.com/the-collection-salvador-dali-sculptures/ |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=}}</ref> 

The cultural resonance of ''The Persistence of Memory'' extends well beyond the confines of the art world, as its iconic melting clocks have been repeatedly referenced and reinterpreted across diverse media platforms, including the likes of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' and ''[[Sesame Street]]''. These visual allusions attest to the painting's enduring symbolic power as a metaphor for temporal distortion and the subconscious realm. Through such adaptations, Dali's imagery has transcended its original Surrealist context to become a pervasive icon in the broader cultural imagination, emblematic of the fluidity of time and the instability of perceived reality.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Salvador Dali's The Persistence of Memory explained {{!}} art {{!}} Agenda {{!}} Phaidon |url=https://www.phaidon.com/agenda/art/articles/2016/may/10/salvador-dalis-the-persistence-of-memory-explained/ |access-date=2025-07-26 |website=www.phaidon.com}}</ref>
[[File:Dargenta & Salvador Dali The persistance of Memory.png|alt=A silver melting clock with black background and golden clock hands.|thumb|The [[Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation|Gala-Salvador Foundation]] representation of the Persistence of Memory by D'Argenta]]

==See also==
{{Portal|Spain}}
* [[List of works by Salvador Dalí]]
* [[Entropy (arrow of time)]]
*''[[Apparatus and Hand]]''
*''[[The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory]]''
{{-}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110623062843/http://www.authenticsociety.com/about/ThePersistenceOfMemory_Dali ''The Persistence of Memory''] on Authentic Society
*''[https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79018 The Persistence of Memory]'' in the MoMA Online Collection
{{commonscat}}
{{Salvador Dalí|state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Persistence Of Memory, The}}
[[Category: Paintings by Salvador Dalí]]
[[Category: Surrealist paintings]]
[[Category:1931 paintings]]
[[Category:Paintings in the Museum of Modern Art (New York City)]]
[[Category: Water in art]]
[[Category:Insects in art]]
[[Category:Works about clocks]]