The Persistence of Memory (Catalan: La persistència de la memòria, Spanish: La persistencia de la memoria) is a 1931 painting by artist Salvador Dalí and one of the most recognizable works of Surrealism.

The Persistence of Memory (La persistencia de la memoria), also known as Soft Watches or Melting Clocks, is one of Dalí’s most famous pieces. The piece is small, measuring just 9.5 × 13 inches (24 × 33 cm). Several of Dalí’s favorite recurring images are present in this work.

But how did this (rather small) painting garner such widespread, global interest? What makes Dali’s imagery so different from other surrealist artists of his day, or now for that matter? And what do those melting clocks mean?

2023年12月12日 · The orange clock at the bottom left of the painting is covered in ants. Dalí often used ants in his paintings as a symbol of decay. Another insect that is present in the painting is a fly, which sits on the watch that is next to the orange watch.

Completed in 1931, Dalí's "melting clocks" quickly became a worldwide sensation and today are considered by some as the height of the Surrealist movement. Dalí specialized in producing art that features familiar objects, but he presented them in unfamiliar ways—embracing irrationality.

Explore Salvador Dali's "The Persistence of Memory," a Surrealist painting famous for its dreamy subject matter—namely its iconic melting clocks.

2021年7月4日 · His most renowned painting, and one of the most famous artworks to ever exist, is undoubtedly The Persistence of Memory, with his iconic melting clocks going on to become an instantly recognized symbol for his work.

2013年5月29日 · Sometimes referred to as just the "melting clocks" painting, in Dali's The Persistence of Memory (1931) a mysterious human-like white figure sleeps in an otherwise deserted landscape. A clock covers the sleeping figure's back, almost the same way a blanket might cover a sleeping child.

2023年7月13日 · The iconic 1931 work depicts a series of clock faces that appear to be melting in a seaside landscape hauntingly barren except for a leaf-less tree, a couple of simple architectural structures, and a distorted, globular form resembling the face of a sleeping human with incredibly long eyelashes.

2021年12月10日 · The Per­sis­tence of Mem­o­ry does­n’t mark Dalí’s first use of melt­ing clocks, though it’s with­out doubt his most impor­tant. Yet “despite its huge cul­tur­al impact,” says Payne, the paint­ing is “quite small, about the size of a sheet of paper.”