The most famous and most discussed painting by S. Dali is "The Persistence of Memory." "The Persistence of Memory" Salvador Dali wrote at the peak of his passion for Freud's theories The picture time is running out in the form of a melting clock

Salvador Dali became famous all over the world thanks to his inimitable surreal style of painting. The most famous works of the author 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", "The Invisible Man". However, Salvador Dali wrote The Persistence of Memory, adding this work to one of his most profound theories. This happened at the junction of his stylistic rethinking, when the artist joined the current of surrealism.

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

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

Being a very egocentric person, prone to outbursts of uncontrollable inspiration and at the same time carefully comprehending it from the point of view of psychoanalysis, Salvador Dali, like all creative personalities, created his masterpiece under the influence of a hot summer day. As the artist himself recalls, he was puzzled by the contemplation of how heat melts him and was previously 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 mountains. By the way, it was this image that became the prototype of soft watches.

Description of the picture

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

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

"The Persistence of Memory" Salvador Dali portrayed somewhat devastated. It is clearly seen that all objects are separated by a desert and are not self-sufficient. Art critics believe that by doing 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 about the passage of time and changes in memory. Time, according to Dali, is infinite, relative and in constant motion. Memory, on the other hand, is short-lived, but its stability should not be underestimated.

Secret images in the picture

“The Persistence of Memory” Salvador Dali wrote in a couple of hours and did not bother to give anyone an explanation about 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 life.

Upon closer examination, 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 withered, indicating 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 the author's inner world to the maximum. Perhaps that is why he did not want to comment on it, leaving his admirers to guess.

Painting is the art of expressing the invisible through the visible.

Eugene Fromentin.

Painting, and in particular its "podcast" surrealism, is not a genre understood by everyone. Those who do not understand throw loud words of criticism, and those who understand are ready to give millions for paintings of this genre. Here is the picture, the first and most famous of the surrealists, “Flowing Time” has “two camps” of opinions. Some shout that the picture is unworthy of all the glory that it has, while others are ready to look at the picture for hours and get aesthetic pleasure ...

The picture of the surrealist carries a very deep meaning. And this meaning develops into a problem - aimlessly flowing time.

In the 20th century in which Dali lived, this problem already existed, already ate people. Many did absolutely nothing useful for them and for society. They burned their lives. And in the 21st century, it acquires even greater strength and tragedy. Teenagers do not read, sit at computers and various gadgets aimlessly and without benefit to themselves. On the contrary: to your own detriment. And even if Dali did not assume the significance of his painting in the 21st century, it made a splash and this is a fact.

Now the "leaking time" has become the object of disputes and conflicts. Many deny all significance, deny the very meaning and deny surrealism as art itself. They argue whether Dali had any idea about the problems of the 21st century when he painted a picture in the 20th?

But nevertheless, "flowing time" is considered one of the most expensive and famous paintings by the artist Salvador Dali.

It seems to me that in and in the 20th century there were problems that weighed heavily on the shoulders of the painter. And opening a new genre of painting, with a cry displayed on canvas, he tried to convey to people: “do not waste precious time!”. And his call was accepted not as an instructive "story", but as a masterpiece of the genre of surrealism. The meaning is lost in the money that swirls around the flowing time. And this circle is closed. The picture, which, according to the author's assumption, was supposed to teach people not to waste time, became a paradox: it itself began to waste people's time and money in vain. Why does a person need a picture in his house, hanging aimlessly? Why spend a lot of money on it? I do not think that Salvador painted a masterpiece for the sake of money, because when the goal is money, nothing comes out.

“Leaking Time” has been teaching for several generations not to miss, not to waste precious seconds of life just like that. Many appreciate the painting, namely the prestige: they gave Salvador an interest in the surrealism, but they do not notice the cry and the meaning embedded in the canvas.

And now, when it is so important to show people that time is more valuable than diamonds, the picture is more relevant and instructive than ever. But only money revolves around her. It's unfortunate.

In my opinion, schools should have painting lessons. Not just drawing, but painting and the meaning of painting. Show children famous paintings by famous artists and reveal to them the meaning of their creations. For the work of artists, who paint in the same way that poets and writers write their works, should not become the goal of prestige and money. I don't think SUCH pictures are drawn for this. Minimalism - yes, stupidity, for which big money is paid. And surrealism in some exhibits. But such paintings as "flowing time", "Malevich's square" and others should not gather dust on someone's walls, but be in museums the center of everyone's attention and reflection. Here you can argue about the Black Square by Kazimir Malevich for days, what did he mean, and in the painting by Salvador Dali from year to year he finds more and more new interpretations. That's what painting and art in general are for. IMHO, as the Japanese would say.

One of the most famous paintings written in the genre of surrealism is "The Persistence of Memory". Salvador Dali, the author of this painting, created it in just a few hours. The canvas is now in New York, at the Museum of Modern Art. This small painting, measuring only 24 by 33 centimeters, is the most discussed work of the artist.

Name Explanation

Salvador Dali's painting "The Persistence of Memory" was painted in 1931 on a handmade tapestry canvas. The idea of ​​​​creating this canvas was due to the fact that once, while waiting for the return of his wife Gala from the cinema, Salvador Dali painted an absolutely desert landscape of the sea coast. Suddenly he saw on the table a piece of cheese melting in the sun, which they ate in the evening with friends. The cheese melted and became softer and softer. Thinking and connecting the long running time with a melting piece of cheese, Dali began to fill the canvas with spreading clocks. Salvador Dali called his work “The Persistence of Memory”, explaining the name by the fact that once you look at the picture, you will never forget it. Another name for the painting is "Flowing hours". This name is associated with the content of the canvas itself, which Salvador Dali put into it.

"The Persistence of Memory": a description of the painting

When you look at this canvas, the unusual placement and structure of the depicted objects immediately catches your eye. The picture shows the self-sufficiency of each of them and the general feeling of emptiness. There are a lot of seemingly unrelated items here, but they all create a general impression. What did Salvador Dali depict in the painting "The Persistence of Memory"? The description of all items takes up quite a lot of space.

The atmosphere of the painting "The Persistence of Memory"

Salvador Dali completed the painting in brown tones. The general shadow lies on the left side and middle of the picture, the sun falls on the back and right side of the canvas. The picture seems to be filled with quiet horror and fear of such calmness, and at the same time, a strange atmosphere fills The Persistence of Memory. Salvador Dali with this canvas makes you think about the meaning of time in the life of every person. About how, can time stop? And can it adapt to each of us? Probably, everyone should give himself the answers to these questions.

It is a known fact that the artist always left notes about his paintings in his diary. However, Salvador Dali did not say anything about the most famous painting, The Persistence of Memory. The great artist initially understood that by painting this picture, he would make people think about the frailty of being in this world.

The influence of the canvas on a person

Salvador Dali's painting "The Persistence of Memory" was considered by American psychologists, who came to the conclusion that this painting has a strong psychological impact on certain types of human personalities. Many people, looking at this painting by Salvador Dali, described their feelings. Most of the people were immersed in nostalgia, the rest were trying to deal with the mixed emotions of general horror and thoughtfulness caused by the composition of the picture. The canvas conveys feelings, thoughts, experiences and attitudes towards the “softness and hardness” of the artist himself.

Of course, this picture is small in size, but it can be considered one of the greatest and most powerful psychological paintings by Salvador Dali. The painting "The Persistence of Memory" carries the greatness of the classics of surrealistic painting.

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".

Salvador Dali and Gala in Cadaqués. 1930 Photo: courtesy of the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin

History of creation

They say that Dali was a little out of his mind. Yes, he suffered from paranoia. But without this, there would be no Dali as an artist. He had mild delirium, expressed in the appearance in the mind of dream images that the artist could transfer to the canvas. The thoughts that visited Dali during the creation of paintings were always bizarre (it was not for nothing that he was fond of psychoanalysis), and a vivid example of this is the story of the appearance of one of his most famous works, The Persistence of Memory (New York, Museum of Modern Art).

It was the summer of 1931 in Paris, when Dali was preparing for a solo exhibition. After seeing his common-law wife Gala with friends at the cinema, “I,” Dali writes 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.

(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, “did I think about Einstein when I painted soft watches ( I mean 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 thinking 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 to 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 nostalgically remembering this action, which actually did not take place,” 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) Oliva. 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 is embodied in rocky granite ( the flow of one delusional image into another. - Approx. ed.)... These are frozen clouds reared up by an explosion in all their countless incarnations, all new and new - 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 bisexual deity Phanes, who created people, was born from the World Egg, 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.

Painter

Salvador Dali

The great Spanish artist Salvador Filipe Jacinto Dali i Domenech was born in the spring of 1904, on May 11th at 08:45...

Brief biographical note

1904 Salvador Dali Domanech was born on May 11th in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain.
1910 Dali begins attending the Christian Brothers' Immaculate Conception elementary school.
1916 Summer vacation with the Pichot family. Dali encounters modern painting for the first time.
1917 Spanish artist Nunez teaches Dali the techniques of original engraving.
1919 First exhibition in a group show at the municipal theater in Figueres. Dali is 15 years old.
1921 Death of mother.
1922 Dali passes the entrance exam to the Accademia de San Fernando in Madrid.
1923 Temporary expulsion from the Academy.
1925 First professional solo exhibition at the Dalmau Gallery in Barcelona.
1926 First trip to Paris and Brussels. Meeting with Picasso. Final exclusion from the Academy.

Leda Atomica 1949

Dream inspired by the flight of a bee 1943

The Last Supper 1955

Temptation of Saint Anthony 1946

1929 Collaboration with Louis Buñuel in the production of the film "Andalusian dog". Meeting with Gala Eluard. First exhibition in Paris.
1930 Dalí resides with Gala in Port Ligat, Spain.
1931 Painting "The Persistence of Memory".
1934 Painting "The Riddle of William Tell" Dali quarreled with a group of surrealists. Civil marriage with Gala. Trip to New York. Albert Schira publishes 42 original Dalí engravings.
1936 Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Paintings "Autumn of Cannibalism", "Soft Hours", "Civil War Warning".
1938 Conversation with the sick Sigmund Freud in London. Dali takes part in the International Surrealist Exhibition in Paris.
1939 Definitively expelled from the Surrealist group due to Dalí's unwillingness to support their political motives.
1940 Dali and Gala emigrate to America where they live for eight years, first in Virginia, then in California and New York.
1941 Retrospective exhibition with Miro at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
1942 Publication of the autobiography "The Secret Life of Salvador Dali, told by himself."
1946 Participation in the film project "Destino" by Walt Disney. Participation in the Alfred Hitchcock Film Project. Painting "The Temptation of St. Anthony".
1949 Paintings "Leda Atomica" and Madonna Port - Ligat "(version 1). Return to Europe.
1957 Publication of twelve original lithographs by Dalí, titled "Pages of the Quest for Don Quixote of La Mancha".
1958 Wedding of Gala and Dali in Girona, Spain.
1959 Painting "Discovery of America by Columbus".
1962 Dalí enters into a ten-year agreement with publisher Pierre Argille to publish illustrations./>
1965 Dali signs a contract with Sidney Lucas, New York.
1967 Acquisition of Pubol Castle in Girona and rebuilding.
1969 Ceremonial moving into Pubol Castle.
1971 The Salvador Dalí Museum opens in Cleveland, Ohio.
1974 Dali begins to worry about health problems.
1982 Opening of the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Death Gala at Pubol Castle.
1983 Grand exhibition of Dali's works in Spain, in Madrid and Barcelona. Completion of painting classes. The last painting is "Swallow's Tail".
1989 January 23, Dali died of heart failure. He is buried in the crypt of the Tatro Museum, in Figueres, Spain. The secret meaning of the painting "The Persistence of Memory" by Salvador Dali

Dali suffered from paranoia, but without him Dali would not exist as an artist. Dali had bouts of mild delirium, which he could transfer to the canvas. The thoughts that visited Dali during the creation of paintings have always been bizarre. The history of the emergence of one of his most famous works, The Persistence of Memory, is a vivid example of this.

(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 soft clocks (meaning 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 of Heraclitus (an 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 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 watchlie on the left with the dial down - this is a symbol of objective time.

(4) Ants- a symbol of decay and decay. According to the professor of the Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture Nina Getashvili, “the childhood impression of a wounded bat infested with ants, as well as the artist’s own recollection of a bathing baby with ants in the anus endowed the artist with the obsessive presence of this insect in his painting for life.

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) Oliva.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 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 rock granite. These are frozen clouds reared up by an explosion in all their countless incarnations, all new and new - you just need to slightly change the angle of view.

(8) Seafor 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 bisexual deity Phanes, who created people, was born from the World Egg, and heaven and earth were formed from the two halves of its shell.

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