The Persistence of Memory

Looking for a world famous, tiny painting that packs a huge punch? Enter the self-proclaimed genius Salvador Dali and his famous droopy clocks in crazy dreamlike landscapes. Of all his work The Persistence of Memory is arguably his most famous, executed with Dali’s usual detailed precision. At first, the initial reaction is often about what am I looking at? The painting immediately turns ours sense of normalcy on its head with its malleable clocks and the strange arrangement of objects within this dreamy landscape. The Persistence of Memory challenges many viewers on first glance, and yet its sense of fun draws you in - a seductive attack on just what is real. An autobiographical aspect, the sea, and hills are reminiscent of the artist’s that Catalonian home landscape. At the center is the deformed character, with its large nose and its eye with its equally large eyelash that extends to the contours of the nose. Dali’s famous clocks were supposedly born out of the artist’s response to looking at melted cheese. And then, of course, there are those links to Freud, the unconscious and the dreamscape, where irrational thoughts in our minds play out.