The Persistence of Memory
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| The Persistence of Memory |
| Salvador Dalí, 1931 |
| oil on canvas |
| 24 × 33 cm |
| Museum of Modern Art, New York City |
| 64 worlds greatest paintings |
The Persistence of Memory (1931) is the most famous painting by artist Salvador Dalí. The painting has also been popularly known as Soft Watches or Melting Clocks. It is currently displayed in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, where it has been since 1934.
The well-known surrealistic piece introduced the image of the soft melting pocket watch.
Dalí began painting to one of his favorite themes, a landscape of the seashore of Catalonia at Cape Creus. He was moved to include the famous melting-clock imagery after a vision he had following a snack of Camembert cheese — the clocks, therefore, have the texture of the soft cheese. The painting shows four soft watches, one of which has a fly showing that time flies and another is being devoured by ants that shows decay. This is widely seen as a commentary that time is less rigid than people usually assume.
In the center of the picture, under one of the watches, is a distorted human face in profile. This face, widely understood to be a self-portrait, also appears in Dalí's earlier work The Great Masturbator.
22 sculptures: Christ the Redeemer
44 buildings: Eiffel Tower • Colosseum • Big Ben • St Basil's Cathedral • Chichen Itza • Taj Mahal • Great Pyramid of Giza • Great Wall of China • Machu Picchu, Petra
64 paintings: American Gothic • Arnolfini marriage • Bacchus and Ariadne • Birth of Venus • Black Square • Burial of St. Lucy • Creation of Adam • Danae • Flight of a Bee • Girl with a Pearl Earring • Guernica • Haywain • Icon of the Trinity • Les Demoiselles d'Avignon • Liberty Leading the People • Madonna Litta • Mona Lisa • Moulin de la Galette • Olympia • Ship of Fools • Sistine Madonna • The Crucifixion of St. Peter • The Death Of Marat • The Great Wave • The Kiss • The Last Supper • The Nude Maja • The Old Guitarist • The Persistence of Memory • The School of Athens • The Scream • The Son of Man • The Starry Night • The Sunflowers • The Third of May • Tower of Babel • Triumph of Galatea • Venus at Her Mirror • Venus de Milo • Venus of Urbino • View of Toledo • Vitruvian Man
