An Analysis Of La Persistencia De La Memoria

Salvador Dali was an artist who was almost more notorious for his colorful personality as for his artistic talents. He took an apolitical outlook on world politics, but often dabbled in anti-establishment movements. This essay explores the life of Salvador Dali, the historical and political time he lived in, and how these influenced his work.

Dali employs a “concrete irrationality” surrealist style giving us the illusion of realism. Design is precise, using symmetrical perspective employing a geometrical figure’s composition. The painting is well balanced. Presence of the light coming from the northeast gives a sense of a natural landscape. The light and shadow relationship “pops the elements out” and creates contrast. The pain of war is expressed by the grotesque mutating human body ripping itself apart with the anguishing facial expression.

One of Dali’s most recognizable works is with the melting clocks in his, The Persistence of Memory, which represents a vision of his view from his home and studio in Port Lligat Bay on the Costa Brava in Catalonia Spain. This painting relates to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity which states that time is relative or not fixed. The watches were symbolism of this theory and the passing of time. Dalis idea for this painting came to him in a dream he had about cheese that formed into limp flimsy watches. However, in Dali’s History of Surrealist Painting, he says the watches symbolize impotence and the hands on the watches are the medical-scientific signs for male. Dali frequently used male symbols of impotence. In the painting Secret Life of Salvador Dali, he presents his nervousness about impotence. The painting depicts phallic symbols of tall erect trees but his small barren dead trees show are symbols of impotence. The soft tongue in the middle of the painting is flaccid like the watches and is a Freudian symbol of the penis. Freud believed menstrual periodicity transforms time into a feminine symbol. Therefore, the fourth watch in Dali’s painting, which is closed, is a feminine symbol.

In 1930 (Editors) Dali switched to a more academic style and one year later Dali drew his most known piece of work “The persistence of memory” which is also known as the melting clocks, this painting was hardly to explain or get the meaning out of it. In the painting there are four clocks which appears to be melting in a widely open desert.

Overall, it seems like there are many people in society now living in our present life. Their society is developing and improving a little bit because of people at the bottom with shackled hands whom are under the influence of the three figures who have a bigger dream and look at higher world. Each of them in the painting has an object on their hands. These seem to be important clues to interpret this painting. One is holding a book, second is holding a jar or flask and third one is holding handwriting, directing or measuring tools of an architect with compass. And there is a globe

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte, painted by Georges Seurat in 1884-6, and La Grenouillère, by Claude Monet in 1869, are both works that are on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, originally painted in France during the Impressionism period. These works are recognized today for the modernity embodied in their impressionistic painting styles as well as their depiction of leisure in modern life.

The museum I chose to visit was the Dali Museum mainly because I have been wanting to check it out since I first moved down here to Florida three years ago. My sister has always been a huge Salvador Dali fan and even has a tattoo of his painting titled “The Elephants” on her side. I am looking forward to experiencing more of his paintings other than his most popular works of art. I am also hoping this experience will give me a greater appreciation for him as an artist by seeing the diversity of his works. What I am least looking forward to is trying to find one work of art that really stands out to me enough to write this paper about. I am sure I am going to find multiple pieces of art that I will love.

Art History is the study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts. The history of art, we feel, can sometimes be confused with art criticism. However, Art History is concerned with finding the value of the artistic piece in respect with others in the same category of art or movement, and art criticism is more of an evaluation of art. The art examined best represents the culture during the time period, visions the artist imagined, and history behind an event. It also represents society in a specific area, beliefs the people may have, writing that tells a story, the natural world and environment, conflict between people and areas, and the human body. With these representations, artwork overall represents the life in which we live (d). Each piece has its own genre, design, format and style to it. This makes each piece extremely different, yet pleasing to the eye. They also vary between paintings, sculptures and architecture. These different types also make a variety of artwork to be seen by all people. The art pieces that I chose, Jar, Bottle and Glass by Juan Gris, The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí, and Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh, seemed interesting to me and I believe to best represent the context in which they were created, along with the major artistic movements of the time. I went on to research them more thoroughly to better understand the history behind them,

Salvador Dali’s 1931 painting The Persistence of Memory is a hallmark of the surrealist movement. Dali famously described his paintings as “hand-painted dream photographs” and The Persistence of Memory is a prime example of that description. The Persistence of Memory depicts striking and confusing images of melting pocket watches and a mysterious fetus-like structure all sprawled over the dreamscape representation of Dali’s home of Port Lligat, Spain. Dali uses strange images, color, and shadows in The Persistence of Memory to convey an abstract view on dreams, time, and reality.

Directly above his head, yet still connected to his head is a semi-circle of an image of a woman holding a baby. It appears that the image is a memory, perhaps of his mother holding himself or his wife holding their child. The man is surely a representation of the artist and this is “his life”. He seems to be the focus of the painting and the overall theme appears to be memories layered throughout. Right above the original semi-circle is another semi-circle of four small, colorful squares. Each square is red, yellow, and blue in color reminding me of the artists’ Hispanic origins. Moving inward from the darker, gray and white outer portion of the painting seems to be a bookcase with three separate images. Each image is of a man painting on a canvas. These three separate images of a man painting throughout the artwork could be the artists’ memories of his father, or a significant man in his life. The grays, blacks, and white used show the artists’ darker memories, while the vibrant, beautiful colors symbolize the joyous ones. Similarly, the softer, warmer colors that the artist uses represent his love, appreciation, and admiration towards his father. Overall, the painting is a memory timeline that

The artist depicts an initial confusing and weirded-out thought for the viewer at first glance, but as one deeply examines the art, the subject matter begins to become more clear. The vision being shared in this non-objective painting has a context of placing one in the standing of Mr. Man by gaining height and freedom from the (white) bars that are rising on each level that represent conflict which traps one in a “cage” of misery. The unbalanced symmetry of having the left side take up more space with little action, and the right side being smaller with the action unraveling, makes the viewer break down each composite perspective. For the left side, the mysterious female muse, Moon-Face, has an unproportional face that is almost blushing with shades of light pasty orange, with the mouth wide open. The energetic mood is amplified by the tone of yellow that is splashed in the mouth, representing a loss of words or at a state of disbelief. The female’s lower half is created with tints of red that enhances the curves on her body, as if chiaroscuro connects the light and dark contrast to show outline of the breasts, stomach, and hips in

Although visual art is looked upon differently by all, everyone has a either a favorite piece or at least something that catches their eye. Personally, I don’t have a piece of art that I would label my absolute favorite, but during a Spanish research project found that Salvador Dali’s work really stood out. “The Persistence of Memory” painted in 1931 by Dali, a highly renowned surrealist painter, is among the most interesting works I have ever seen. Even though the painting itself is rather simple in quality at first glance, what Dali’s must have been thinking about while creating this work is strikingly complex. The painting is attractive to me because it deals with the concept of time, something

The Large Bathers is a painting by the French painter Paul Cézanne. It is made in oil on

The next item that the eye is drawn to is the fly, resting on this clock. Although this clock seems to be melting like the others in the picture, the fly plays an important part in this painting. Being the painting is named, The Persistence of Memory, the fly leads the onlooker to think these memories might not be as old as the rest. Flies are drawn to items that are rotting but still have some nutritional value; this clock is fresh enough to have more value than the other clocks around it, giving the spectator the thought that maybe while the clock is a memory, it is not distant and is still brought to the frontal lobe now and then to be revisited.

Salvador Dali was born into a middle class family on May 11th 1904 in Figures, Spain. During his lifetime, he was an eccentric painter, writer, sculptor and experimental film maker. In Dali’s early years of painting he experimented at first with landscapes, most of which were of his home in Figueres, Spain. Dali also made paintings of the surrounding area of his family’s summer home, in the seaside town of Cadaques. Dali’s transitional period was between 1927 and 1929, these were years of experimentation. In this period gravel, rocks, cork, and other materials can be noted on his canvases. This was more abstract period then others, at this time in Dali’s life he had just been kicked out of the art school he had been attending .