The constancy of time el salvador gave a description. The most famous and most discussed painting by S. Dali is "The Persistence of Memory." The influence of the canvas on a person

In early August 1929, young Dali met his future wife and muse Gala. Their union became the key to the incredible success of the artist, influencing all his subsequent work, including the painting "The Persistence of Memory".

(1) soft watch- a symbol of non-linear, subjective time, arbitrarily flowing and unevenly filling space. The three clocks in the picture are past, present and future. “You asked me,” Dali wrote to physicist Ilya Prigogine, “whether I was thinking about Einstein when I was drawing a soft watch (meaning the theory of relativity. - Approx. ed.). 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 I thought about Heraclitus (an ancient Greek philosopher who believed that time is measured by the flow of thought. - Approx. ed.). That is why my painting is called The Persistence of Memory. Memory of the relationship of space and time.

(2) Blurred object with eyelashes. This is a self-portrait of a sleeping Dali. 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. “Sleep is death, or at least it is an exclusion 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 oyster pulp in a fortress-shell, and thus saved it.”

(3) solid watch - lie on the left with the dial down - a symbol of objective time.

(4) Ants- a symbol of decay and decay. According to Nina Getashvili, a professor at the Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, “the childhood impression of a wounded bat infested with ants, as well as the artist’s own memory of a bathing baby with ants in the anus endowed the artist with the obsessive presence of this insect in his painting. (“I loved to nostalgically recall this action, which actually did not happen,” the artist writes in “The Secret Life of Salvador Dali, told by himself.” - Approx. ed.). On the clock on the left, the only one that has retained its hardness, 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 decay.” 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 carried inspiration to the Greek philosophers who spent their lives under the sun, covered in flies."

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

(7) Cape Creus. This cape 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. - Approx. ed.) is embodied in rock granite ... new ones - you just need to slightly change the angle of view.

(8) Sea for Dali it symbolized immortality and eternity. The artist considered it an ideal space for traveling, where time does not flow 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 androgynous deity Phanes was born from the World Egg, who created people, and heaven and earth were formed from the two halves of its shell.

(10) Mirror lying horizontally to the left. It is a symbol of variability and inconstancy, obediently reflecting both the subjective and objective world.

Photo: M.FLYNN/ALAMY/DIOMEDIA, CARL VAN VECHTEN/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Plot

Dali, like a real surrealist, immerses us in the world of dreams with his painting. Fussy, chaotic, mystical and at the same time seeming understandable and real.

On the one hand, the familiar clock, the sea, the rocky landscape, the withered tree. On the other hand, their appearance and proximity to other, poorly identifiable objects leaves one perplexed.

There are three clocks in the picture: past, present and future. The artist followed the ideas of Heraclitus, who believed that time is measured by the flow of thought. A soft clock is a symbol of non-linear, subjective time, arbitrarily flowing and unevenly filling space.

Dali's molten watch was invented while thinking about Camembert

A hard clock infested with ants is linear time that devours itself. The image of insects as a symbol of decay and decay haunted Dali since childhood, when he saw how insects swarm on the carcass of a bat.

But Dali called the flies the fairies of the Mediterranean: "They carried inspiration to the Greek philosophers who spent their lives under the sun, covered in flies."

The artist depicted himself sleeping in the form of a blurry object with eyelashes. “Sleep is death, or at least it is an exclusion from reality, or, even better, it is the death of reality itself, which dies in the same way during the act of love.”

Salvador Dali

The tree is depicted dry, because, as Dali believed, ancient wisdom (of which this tree is a symbol) has sunk into oblivion.

The deserted shore is the cry of the soul of the artist, who through this image speaks of his emptiness, loneliness and longing. “Here (on Cape Creus in Catalonia - ed.), - he wrote, - the most important principle of my theory of paranoid metamorphoses is embodied in rock granite ... These are frozen clouds reared by an explosion in all their countless forms, all new and new - there is only slightly change the angle of view.

At the same time, the sea is a symbol of immortality and eternity. According to Dali, the sea is ideal for traveling, where time flows in accordance with the internal rhythms of consciousness.

Dali took the image of an egg as a symbol of life from the ancient mystics. The latter believed that the first bisexual deity Phanes was born from the World Egg, which created people, and heaven and earth were formed from the two halves of its shell.

A mirror lies horizontally on the left. It reflects everything you want: both the real world and dreams. For Dali, the mirror is a symbol of impermanence.

Context

According to a legend invented by Dali himself, he created the image of a flowing clock in just two hours: “We were supposed to go to the cinema with friends, but at the last moment I decided to stay at home. Gala will go with them, and I will go to bed early. We ate very tasty cheese, then I was left alone, sitting leaning on the table and thinking about how “super soft” processed cheese is. I got up and went to the studio to take a look at my work as usual. The picture I was going to paint was a landscape of the outskirts of Port Lligat, rocks, as if illuminated by a dim evening light. In the foreground, I sketched the chopped off trunk of a leafless olive tree. This landscape is the basis for a canvas with some idea, but what? I needed a marvelous image, but I did not find it. I went to turn off the light, and when I got out, I literally “saw” the solution: two pairs of soft clocks, one hanging plaintively from an olive branch. Despite the migraine, I prepared my palette and set to work. Two hours later, when Gala returned from the cinema, the picture, which was to become one of the most famous, was completed.

Gala: no one will be able to forget these soft clocks after seeing them at least once

After 20 years, the picture was built into a new concept - "Disintegration of Memory Persistence". The iconic image is surrounded by nuclear mysticism. Soft dials quietly disintegrate, the world is divided into clear blocks, the space is under water. The 1950s, with post-war reflection and technical progress, obviously plowed Dali.

"The Disintegration of Memory Persistence"

Dali is buried in such a way that anyone can walk on his grave

Creating all this diversity, Dali also invented himself - from mustaches to hysterical behavior. He saw how many talented people who were not noticed. Therefore, the artist regularly reminded himself of himself in the most eccentric possible manner.

Dali on the roof of his house in Spain

Even Dali's death was turned into a performance: according to his will, he was to be buried so that people could walk on the grave. Which was done after his death in 1989. Today, Dali's body is buried in the floor in one of the rooms of his house in Figueres.

Salvador Dali can rightly 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 the most discussed paintings. This canvas stands out for its deep subtext and many encrypted symbols. And it is the most copied work of the artist.

Salvador Dali himself said that he created the dials in the picture in two hours. His wife Gala went to the cinema with friends, and the artist stayed at home, citing a headache. Being alone, he examined the room. Here Dali's attention was attracted by Camembert cheese, which he and Gala had recently eaten. It slowly melted in the sun.

Suddenly, the master had an idea, and he went to his studio, where a landscape of the environs of Port Ligat was already painted on canvas. Salvador Dali spread the palette and began to create. By the time the wife arrived home, the picture was ready.

A lot of allusions and metaphors are hidden on a small canvas. Art critics are happy to decipher all the riddles 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 crawling on it is linear time that consumes itself. Salvador Dali has repeatedly admitted that in childhood he was strongly impressed by the sight of ants swarming on a dead bat.

A certain spreading object with eyelashes is a self-portrait of Dali. The artist associated the deserted shore with loneliness, and the withered 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 has changed. He created a painting called "The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory". In concept, it echoed the Persistence of Memory, but the new era of technological progress left its mark on the author's attitude. The dials are gradually disintegrating, and the space is divided into ordered blocks and flooded with water.

Salvador Dali - Persistence of memory (Spanish: La persistencia de la memoria).

Year of creation: 1931

Canvas, handmade tapestry.

Original size: 24×33cm

Museum of Modern Art, New York

« The Persistence of Memory”(Spanish: La persistencia de la memoria, 1931) is one of the most famous paintings by the artist Salvador Dali. It has been in the Museum of Modern Art in New York since 1934.

Also known as " soft watch», « Hardness of memory" or " Memory Persistence».

This small painting (24×33 cm) is probably Dali's most famous work. The softness of the hanging and flowing clock is an image that could be described as: "it spreads into the realm of the unconscious, enlivening the universal human experience of time and memory." Dali himself is present here in the form of a sleeping head, which has already appeared in The Funeral Game and other paintings. In accordance with his method, the artist explained the origin of the plot by thinking about the nature of Camembert cheese; the landscape with Port Ligat was already ready, so it was a matter of two hours to paint the picture. Returning from the cinema, where she went that evening, Gala quite correctly predicted that no one, having seen The Persistence of Memory once, would forget it. The picture was painted as a result of the associations that arose in Dali at the sight of processed cheese, as evidenced by his own quote.

Description of the painting by Salvador Dali “The Persistence of Memory”

The greatest representative of surrealism in painting, Salvador Dali, truly skillfully combined mystery and evidence. This amazing Spanish artist executed his paintings in a manner inherent only to him, sharpened life's questions with the help of an original and opposite combination of real and fantastic.

One of the most famous paintings, known by several names, is most often found - "The Persistence of Memory", but is also known as "Soft Hours", "The Hardness of Memory" or "The Persistence of Memory".

This is a very small picture of time arbitrarily flowing and unevenly filling space. The artist himself explained that the emergence of this plot is associated with associations when thinking about the nature of processed cheese.

It all starts with a landscape, it takes up little space on the canvas. In the distance one can see the desert and the sea coast, perhaps this is a reflection of the inner emptiness of the artist. There are still three clocks in the picture, but they are flowing. This is a temporary space through which the flow of life flows, but it can change.

Most of the artist's paintings, their ideas, content, subtext, became known from the notes in the diaries of Salvador Dali. But what is the opinion of the artist himself about this picture is not found, not a single line. There are many opinions about what the artist wanted to convey to us. There are some so contradictory that this saggy watch speaks of Dali's fears, perhaps in front of any male problems. But, despite all these assumptions, the picture is very popular, thanks to the originality of the surrealist direction.

Most often, the word surrealism refers to Dali, and his painting “The Persistence of Memory” comes to mind. Now this work is in New York, you can see it at the Museum of Modern Art.

The idea for the work came to Dali on a hot summer day. He lay at home with a headache, and Gala went shopping. After eating, Dali noticed that the cheese melted from the heat, became fluid. It somehow coincided with what Dali had in his soul. The artist had a desire to paint a landscape with a melting clock. He returned to the unfinished painting he was working on at the time, which showed a tree on a platform with mountains in the background. Within two or three hours, Salvador Dali hung a melted pocket watch on the painting, which made the painting what it is today.

Salvador Dali
The Persistence of Memory 1931

History of creation

It was the summer of 1931 in Paris, when Dali was preparing for a solo exhibition. After spending Gala with friends at the cinema, “I,” writes Dali in his memoirs, “returned to the table (we finished dinner with an excellent Camembert) and plunged into thoughts about the spreading pulp. Cheese popped into my mind's eye. I got up and, as usual, went to the studio to look at the picture I was painting before going to bed. It was the landscape of Port Lligat in the transparent, sad sunset light. In the foreground is the bare skeleton of an olive tree with a broken branch.

I felt that in this picture I managed to create an atmosphere consonant with some important image - but what? I have not the foggiest idea. I needed a marvelous image, but I did not find it. I went to turn off the light, and when I got out, I literally saw the solution: two pairs of soft clocks, they hang plaintively from an olive branch. Despite the migraine, I prepared my palette and set to work. Two hours later, by the time Gala returned, the most famous of my paintings was finished.

Year of painting: 1931, size: 33 cm x 24 cm.

The Persistence of Memory was painted by the Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali and is one of his most famous works. She is currently at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Thanks to the huge number of fans of this painting and the followers of the painter, this canvas is very popular and at the present time, it is often mentioned in modern popular culture.

“The blindness of people who always do the same thing is striking. I am surprised why the bank employee does not eat the check, I am surprised that other artists, before me, did not think of drawing "soft watches" ... "- wrote Salvador Dali.

The Persistence of Memory is a surreal painting. Surrealism was a cultural movement that took place in the 1920s. The surreal artworks present an element of surprise, unforeseen comparisons and irreverent humor. Sometimes, it's art that is a free expression of the artist's current imagination that can be difficult to interpret, and The Persistence of Memory is no exception. Here the artist depicts hard objects as soft ones.

The painting depicts a slowly melting pocket watch separated from its chains, the sea and a deserted beach in a bay surrounded by cliffs in the background (the artist was inspired by the cliffs of Cape Creus). Part of the picture is illuminated by sunlight, and part is shrouded in shadow. If you look closely, you can also see small stones.

“Landscape is a state of mind,” Dali said.

Dali often used the philosophy of hard and soft in his paintings. According to some experts, melting clocks indicate the fluidity of time, solid stones are the reality of life, and the sea represents the immensity of the earth. There is also an orange-red clock covered with ants in the painting, supposedly symbolizing the torment of waiting. Attention is also attracted by a strange figure, in the center, resembling a melting head with a large nose, protruding tongue and a closed eye with long eyelashes. Her neck seems to be fading into shadow. Some interpret it as a joke, the head of a person staring and frozen in a trance, the future viewer of this picture, others believe that this is the head of Dali himself, during a migraine attack. Some also say that the head has this shape because it is free from any prejudice, or simply dead, or the artist believed that death is freedom, because he said: “Freedom - if you define its aesthetic category - is the embodiment of formlessness, it is amorphous”, “Death fascinates me with eternity”.

There are many different versions of the Persistence of Memory analysis. Critic, art historian Dawn Ades wrote that "the soft watch is an unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time." When Dali was asked if it was true that this was an allusion to Einstein's theory of relativity, he replied rather flippantly that it was just a surreal vision of Camembert cheese melting in the sun.

Also, experts say that Freud's ideas could have influenced the meaning of the work, since the painting was painted during the years when Dali was interested in Freud's work.

“When I write, I myself do not understand what is the meaning of my picture. But don't think it's meaningless! It’s just that it is so deep and complex, laid-back and whimsical that it eludes the logical standard perception,” said Dali.

The painting has attracted the attention of art lovers for many decades. During this time, the picture received a lot of criticism and praise. For those who like the surreal style of art, this is a masterpiece. For others, it's just rubbish or, at best, a picture of a lunatic. Be that as it may, this is one of the works of art that will not be erased from people's memory for a long time and will provoke new arguments and interpretations.