Salvador Dalí
‚The Persistence of Memory‘

Key piece series

In honor of Salvador Dali’s birthday we analyze The Persistence of Memory, the most iconic piece by the surrealist artist, in this weeks Key Piece edition.

1. It was created in 1931, when Dalí perfected his ‘paranoiac-critical method’.
2. It was first shown at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1932 before being offered to MoMa by an anonymous donator in 1932. Place where it can still be admired.
3. It was painted amidst of a hallucination, as Dalí wrote : „I am the first to be surprised and often terrified by the images I see appear upon my canvas. I register without choice and with all possible exactitude the dictates of my subconscious, my dreams.“
4. It epitomizes Dalí’s theory of ‘softness’ and ‘hardness’ and his an interpretation of Einstein’s theory of Special relativity.
5. It made Dalí world famous at the age of 28.
6. It is influenced by Dalí’s childhood in Catalonia as testified illustrated by the Mont Pani in the foreground.
7. Dalí took his main inspiration for the melting clock from a wheel of Camembert cheese that had melted in the sun.
8. It can be seen as a self-portrait through the ‘monster’ figure in the middle of the painting- a recurrent character in Dalí’s corpus that represents the artist himself.
9. Dalí created The Disintegration of Persistence of Memory- a painting placing the same elements as in The Persistence of Memory underwater- in the ‘50s to signify his shift in influence, from Freud to the atomic age.
10. The Persistence of Memory became a pop culture icon, appearing in TV shows The Simpsons, Hey Arnold, Sesame Street and Doctor Who.

Salvador Dalí, The Persistence of Memory, 1931, Oil on canvas, 24 cm × 33 cm (9.5 in × 13 in)


Salvador Dalí, The Disintegration of Persistence of Memory, 1952-1954, Oil on canvas, 25.4 cm × 33 cm (10 in × 13 in)