Salvador Dali became famous throughout the world thanks to his inimitable surreal style of painting. To the very famous works The author’s works include his personal self-portrait, where he depicted himself with a neck in the style of Raphael’s brush, “Flesh on the Stones,” “Enlightened Pleasures,” and “The Invisible Man.” However, Salvador Dali wrote “The Persistence of Memory”, attaching this work to one of his most profound theories. This happened at the junction of his stylistic rethinking, when the artist joined the trend of surrealism.

"The Persistence of Memory". Salvador Dali and his Freudian theory

The famous canvas was created in 1931, when the artist was in a state of heightened excitement from the theories of his idol, the Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. IN general outline The idea of ​​the painting was to convey the artist’s attitude towards softness and hardness.

Being a very self-centered person, prone to flashes of uncontrollable inspiration and at the same time carefully understanding it from the point of view of psychoanalysis, Salvador Dali, like everyone else, creative personalities, created his masterpiece under the influence of hot summer day. As the artist himself recalls, he was puzzled by the contemplation of how the heat melted. He had previously been attracted by the theme of transforming objects into different states, which he tried to convey on canvas. The painting “The Persistence of Memory” by Salvador Dali is a symbiosis of melted cheese with an olive tree standing alone against the backdrop of the mountains. By the way, it was this image that became the prototype of the soft watch.

Description of the picture

Almost all works of that period are filled with abstract images human faces, hidden behind the shapes of foreign objects. They seem to be hidden from view, but at the same time they are the main ones acting characters. This is how the surrealist tried to depict the subconscious in his works. Salvador Dali made the central figure of the painting “The Persistence of Memory” a face that is similar to his self-portrait.

The painting seemed to have absorbed all the significant stages in the artist’s life, and also reflected the inevitable future. You can notice that in the lower left corner of the canvas you can see a closed clock completely dotted with ants. Dali often resorted to depicting these insects, which for him were associated with death. The shape and color of the clock were based on the artist's memories of one in his childhood home that was broken. By the way, the mountains visible are nothing more than a piece from the landscape of the Spaniard’s homeland.

Salvador Dali portrayed “The Persistence of Memory” as somewhat devastated. It is clearly visible that all objects are separated from each other by the desert and are not self-sufficient. Art critics believe that with this the author tried to convey his spiritual emptiness, which weighed on him at that time. In fact, the idea was to convey human anguish over the passage of time and changes in memory. Time, according to Dali, is infinite, relative and in constant motion. Memory, on the contrary, is short-lived, but its stability should not be underestimated.

Secret images in the painting

Salvador Dali wrote “The Persistence of Memory” in a couple of hours and did not bother to explain to anyone what he wanted to say with this canvas. Many art historians are still building hypotheses around this iconic work of the master, noticing in it only individual symbols that the artist resorted to throughout his entire career.

Upon closer inspection, you can see that the clock hanging from the branch on the left is shaped like a tongue. The tree on the canvas is depicted as withered, which indicates the destructive aspect of time. This work is small in size, but is considered the most powerful of all that Salvador Dali wrote. “The Persistence of Memory” is certainly the most psychologically deep picture that reveals inner world author. Perhaps that is why he did not want to comment on it, leaving his admirers guessing.

Dali suffered from paranoid syndrome, but without it there would not have been Dali as an artist. Dali experienced bouts of mild delirium, which he could transfer to canvas. The thoughts that Dali had while creating his paintings were always bizarre. The story of one of his most famous works, “The Persistence of Memory,” is a striking example of this.

(1)Soft watch- a symbol of nonlinear, subjective time, flowing arbitrarily and unevenly filling space. The three clocks in the picture are the past, present and future. “You asked me,” Dali wrote to physicist Ilya Prigogine, “if I thought about Einstein when I drew a soft clock (referring to the theory of relativity). I answer you in the negative, the fact is that the connection between space and time was absolutely obvious to me for a long time, so there was nothing special in this picture for me, it was the same as any other... To this I can add that I thought about Heraclitus ( ancient Greek philosopher, who believed that time is measured by the flow of thought). That is why my painting is called “The Persistence of Memory.” Memory of the relationship between space and time."

(2) Blurry object with eyelashes. This is a self-portrait of Dali sleeping. The world in the picture is his dream, the death of the objective world, the triumph of the unconscious. “The relationship between sleep, love and death is obvious,” the artist wrote in his autobiography. “A dream is death, or at least it is an exception from reality, or, even better, it is the death of reality itself, which dies in the same way during the act of love.” According to Dali, sleep frees the subconscious, so the artist’s head blurs like a clam - this is evidence of his defenselessness. Only Gala, he will say after the death of his wife, “knowing my defenselessness, hid my hermit’s oyster pulp in a fortress-shell, and thereby saved it.”

(3) Solid watchlie on the left with the dial down - this is a symbol of objective time.

(4) Ants- a symbol of rotting and decomposition. According to the professor Russian Academy painting, sculpture and architecture of Nina Getashvili, “ childhood impression from infested with ants bat the wounded animal, as well as the memory invented by the artist himself of a bathed baby with ants in the anus, endowed the artist with the obsessive presence of this insect in his painting for the rest of his life.

On the clock on the left, the only one that has remained solid, the ants also create a clear cyclic structure, obeying the divisions of the chronometer. However, this does not obscure the meaning that the presence of ants is still a sign of decomposition.” According to Dali, linear time devours itself.

(5) Fly.According to Nina Getashvili, “the artist called them fairies of the Mediterranean. In The Diary of a Genius, Dali wrote: “They brought inspiration Greek philosophers who spent their lives under the sun, covered with flies."

(6) Olive.For the artist, this is a symbol of ancient wisdom, which, unfortunately, has already sunk into oblivion and therefore the tree is depicted dry.

(7) Cape Creus.This cape is on the Catalan coast of the Mediterranean Sea, near the city of Figueres, where Dali was born. The artist often depicted him in paintings. “Here,” he wrote, “the most important principle of my theory of paranoid metamorphoses (the flow of one delusional image into another) is embodied in rocky granite.” These are frozen clouds, reared up by an explosion, in all their countless guises, more and more new - you just have to change your perspective a little.”

(8) Seafor Dali it symbolized immortality and eternity. The artist considered it an ideal space for travel, where time flows not at an objective speed, but in accordance with the internal rhythms of the traveler’s consciousness.

(9) Egg.According to Nina Getashvili, the World Egg in Dali’s work symbolizes life. The artist borrowed his image from the Orphics - ancient Greek mystics. According to Orphic mythology, the first bisexual deity Phanes, who created people, was born from the World Egg, and heaven and earth were formed from the two halves of his shell.

(10) Mirror, lying horizontally on the left. This is a symbol of changeability and impermanence, obediently reflecting both the subjective and objective world.

Salvador Dali can rightfully be called the greatest surrealist. Streams of consciousness, dreams and reality were reflected in all his works. “The Persistence of Memory” is one of the smallest (24x33 cm), but most discussed paintings. This canvas stands out for its deep subtext and many encrypted symbols. It is also the artist’s most copied work.

Salvador Dali himself said that he created the dials in the painting in two hours. His wife Gala went to the cinema with friends, and the artist stayed at home, citing a headache. Alone, he looked around the room. Then Dali’s attention was attracted by the Camembert cheese that he and Gala had recently eaten. It slowly melted in the sun.

Suddenly an idea occurred to the master, and he went to his workshop, where the landscape of the outskirts of Port Ligat was already painted on canvas. Salvador Dali spread his palette and began to create. By the time my wife arrived home, the painting was ready.

There are many allusions and metaphors hidden on the small canvas. Art historians are happy to decipher all the mysteries of “The Persistence of Memory.”

The three clocks represent the present, past and future. Their “melting” form is a symbol of subjective time, unevenly filling space. Another clock with ants swarming on it - this is linear time, which consumes itself. Salvador Dali admitted more than once that as a child he was deeply impressed by the sight of ants swarming on a dead bat.

A certain spread object with eyelashes is a self-portrait of Dali. deserted shore The artist associated it with loneliness, and the dried tree with ancient wisdom. On the left in the picture you can see the mirror surface. It can reflect both reality and the world of dreams.

After 20 years, Dali’s view of the world changed. He created a painting called “Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory.” In concept it had something in common with “The Persistence of Memory”, however new era technological progress left its mark on the author’s worldview. The dials gradually disintegrate, and the space is divided into ordered blocks and flooded with water.

Salvador Dali. The Persistence of Memory. 1931 24x33 cm. Museum contemporary art, New York (MOMA)

The melting clock is a very recognizable image of Dali. Even more recognizable than an egg or a nose with lips.

Remembering Dali, we willy-nilly think about the painting “The Persistence of Memory”.

What is the secret of such a success of the film? Why did she become business card artist?

Let's try to figure it out. And at the same time we will carefully consider all the details.

“The Persistence of Memory” – something to think about

Many of Salvador Dali's works are unique. Due to an unusual combination of parts. This encourages the viewer to ask questions. What's all this for? What did the artist want to say?

“The Persistence of Memory” is no exception. It immediately provokes a person to think. Because the image of the current clock is very catchy.

But it’s not just the watch that makes you think. The whole picture is saturated with many contradictions.

Let's start with color. There are many brown shades in the picture. They are hot, which adds to the deserted feeling.

But this hot space is diluted with cold blue. These are watch dials, the sea and the surface of a huge mirror.

Salvador Dali. Persistence of memory (fragment with dry wood). 1931 Museum of Modern Art, New York

The curvature of the dials and dry tree branches are in clear contrast with the straight lines of the table and mirror.

We also see a contrast between real and unreal things. Dry wood is real, but a clock melting on it is not. The sea in the distance is real. But you can hardly find a mirror the size of it in our world.

Such a mixture of everything and everyone leads to different thoughts. I also think about the variability of the world. And about the fact that time does not come, but goes. And about the proximity of reality and sleep in our lives.

Everyone will think about it, even if they know nothing about Dali’s work.

Dali's interpretation

Dali himself commented little on his masterpiece. He just said that the image of the melting clock was inspired by cheese spreading in the sun. And when painting the picture, he thought about the teachings of Heraclitus.

This ancient thinker said that everything in the world is changeable and has a dual nature. Well, there is more than enough duality in The Constancy of Time.

But why did the artist name his painting exactly that? Maybe because he believed in the constancy of memory. The fact is that only the memory of certain events and people can be preserved, despite the passage of time.

But we don't know the exact answer. The beauty of this masterpiece lies precisely in this. You can struggle with the riddles of the painting for as long as you like, but you still won’t find all the answers.

On that day in July 1931, Dali had an idea interesting image melting clock. But all the other images had already been used by him in other works. They migrated to “The Persistence of Memory”.

Maybe that’s why the film is so successful. Because this is a collection of the artist’s most successful images.

Dali even drew his favorite egg. Although somewhere in the background.

Of course, in “Geopolitical Child” it is a close-up. But in both cases, the egg carries the same symbolism - change, the birth of something new. Again according to Heraclitus.

In the same fragment of “The Persistence of Memory” there is a close-up of the mountains. This is Cape Creus near his hometown of Figueres. Dali loved to transfer memories from childhood into his paintings. So this landscape, familiar to him from birth, wanders from painting to painting.

Self-portrait of Dali

Of course, a strange creature still catches your eye. It, like a watch, is fluid and formless. This is a self-portrait of Dali.

We see closed eye with huge eyelashes. Sticking out a long and thick tongue. He is clearly unconscious or not feeling well. Of course, in such heat that even metal melts.

Is this a metaphor for lost time? Or a human shell that has lived its life meaninglessly?

Personally, I associate this head with Michelangelo’s self-portrait from the fresco “ Last Judgment" The master portrayed himself in a unique way. In the form of deflated skin.

Taking a similar image is quite in the spirit of Dali. After all, his work was distinguished by frankness, a desire to show all his fears and desires. The image of a man with his skin flayed off suited him well.

In general, such a self-portrait is a frequent occurrence in Dali’s paintings. We see him close-up on the canvas “The Great Masturbator”.

And now we can conclude about another secret to the success of the film. All the pictures given for comparison have one feature. Like many other works of Dali.

Spicy details

There is a lot of sexual overtones in Dali's works. You can’t just show them to an audience under 16. And you can’t depict them on posters either. Otherwise they will be accused of insulting the feelings of passers-by. How it happened with reproductions.

But “The Persistence of Memory” is quite innocent. Replicate as much as you want. And show it in art classes in schools. And print on mugs with T-shirts.

It’s hard not to pay attention to insects. There is a fly sitting on one dial. There are ants on the upside down red clock.

Ants are also frequent guests in the master’s paintings. We see them on the same “Masturbator”. They swarm on the locusts and in the mouth area.

The Persistence of the Memory of Salvador Dali, or, as is popularly known, the soft watch, is perhaps the master’s most popular painting. The only people who haven’t heard about it are those who are in an information vacuum in some village without a sewer system.

Well, let’s start our “story of one painting,” perhaps, with its description, so beloved by hippopotamus adherents. For those who don’t understand what I mean, conversations about hippopotamus are a blast, especially for those who have at least once communicated with an art critic. It's on YouTube, Google can help. But let's return to our Salvadoran sheep.

The same painting “The Persistence of Memory”, another name is “Soft Hours”. The genre of the picture is surrealism, your captain of obviousness is always ready to serve. Located in the New York Museum of Modern Art. Oil. Year of creation 1931. Size - 100 by 330 cm.

More about Salvadorich and his paintings

The permanence of Salvador Dali's memory, description of the painting.

The painting depicts the lifeless landscape of the notorious Port Lligat, where Salvador spent a significant part of his life. In the foreground in the left corner there is a piece of something hard, on which, in fact, there is a pair of soft watches. One of the soft watches is dripping from a hard thing (either a rock, or hardened earth, or God knows what), another watch is located on the branch of the corpse of an olive tree that has long since died in the bosom. That red weird thing in the left corner is a solid pocket watch being eaten by ants.

In the middle of the composition one can see an amorphous mass with eyelashes, in which, however, one can easily see a self-portrait of Salvador Dali. A similar image is present in so many of Salvadorich’s paintings that it is quite difficult not to recognize it (for example, in) Soft Dali is wrapped in a soft watch, like a blanket and, apparently, sleeps and has sweet dreams.

In the background settled the sea, coastal rocks and again a piece of some hard blue unknown garbage.

Salvador Dali Constancy of memory, analysis of paintings and the meaning of images.

My personal opinion is that the painting symbolizes exactly what is stated in its title - the constancy of memory, while time is fleeting and quickly “melts” and “flows down” like a soft clock or is devoured like a hard one. As they say, sometimes a banana is just a banana.

All that can be said with some degree of certainty is that Salvador painted the picture while Gala went to the cinema to have fun, and he stayed at home due to a migraine attack. The idea for the painting came to him some time after eating soft Camembert cheese and thinking about its “super softness.” All this is from Dali’s words and therefore closest to the truth. Although the master was still a talker and a hoaxer, and his words should be filtered through a fine, fine sieve.

Deep Meaning Syndrome

This is all below - the creation of shadowy geniuses from the Internet and I don’t know how to feel about it. I have not found any documentary evidence or statements from El Salvador on this matter, so do not take it at face value. But some assumptions are beautiful and have a place to be.

When creating the painting, Salvador may have been inspired by the common ancient saying “Everything flows, everything changes,” which is attributed to Heraclitus. Claims to some degree of authenticity, since Dali was familiar firsthand with the philosophy of the ancient thinker. Salvadorich even has a decoration (a necklace, if I'm not mistaken) called the Heraclitus fountain.

There is an opinion that the three clocks in the picture are the past, present and future. It is unlikely that this was really what El Salvador intended, but the idea is beautiful.

The hard clock is perhaps time in the physical sense, and the soft clock is the subjective time we perceive. More like the truth.

The dead olive is supposedly a symbol of ancient wisdom that has sunk into oblivion. This is, of course, interesting, but considering that at the beginning Dali simply painted a landscape, and the idea to include all these surreal images came to him much later, it seems very doubtful.

The sea in the picture is supposedly a symbol of immortality and eternity. It’s also beautiful, but I doubt it, since, again, the landscape was painted earlier and did not contain any deep and surreal ideas.

Among lovers of the search for deep meaning, there was an assumption that the painting The Persistence of Memory was created under the influence of ideas about the theory of relativity of Uncle Albert. In response to this, Dali replied in an interview that, in fact, he was inspired not by the theory of relativity, but by “the surreal feeling of Camembert cheese melting in the sun.” So it goes.

By the way, Camembert is a very good yum with a delicate texture and a slightly mushroom flavor. Although Dorblu is much tastier, in my opinion.

What does the sleeping Dali himself mean in the middle, wrapped in a clock? I have no idea, to be honest. Did you want to show your unity with time, with memory? Or the connection of time with sleep and death? Covered in the darkness of history.