HUMANITIES

SALVADOR DALI, THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY (1931)

A surrealist painter, the Spanish Salvador Dali is one of the most well known artists of the twentieth
century. Known for his weird and outlandish subject matter, Dali's most famous work of art is
probably The Persistence of Memory (1931), often called just "Clocks" and widely regarded as a
Surrealist masterpiece.

In the painting, four clocks are prominently displayed in an otherwise empty desert. The clocks are not
flat as it is generally expected to be, but are bent out of shape appearing to be melting away. The main
goal of surrealists was to create a visual representation that seemed like dreaming. The melting
somewhat depicts the unknown passage of time while dreaming. Time controls the daily life of people.
But in this painting we can clearly see that there is no relevance for time as it is distorted and seems to
fade away. As surrealism depicts dream state, the painting illustrates how useless and arbitrary the
concept of time is. Surrealism also depicts jokes, humor and sarcasm etc. The irony can be seen in the
title itself as ‘persistence’ is something that continues to exist even after the process ceases, but in the
painting it is very clear that time holds no power or certainty as it is melting away and will cease to exist.
Similarly, the ants eating away the red clock depict the perishing and thus the temporary nature of us
keeping time.

Merlin Kuriakose-33

Anugraha Nair-40

Shweta Nair-43