The Persistence of Salvador Dali's Memory

A personality of the twentieth century, absolutely out of the ordinary, was that of Dali. He spoke about himself in the third person, and claimed to wake up every morning with a pleasant awareness: that of being Salvador Dali. His art perfectly reflects his original being. Exponent of Surrealism, but also of Dadaism and Symbolism, The Persistence of Memory is one of his most famous works. Towards the back edge of the solid, a slender dead trunk rises towards the sky and one of its branches supports another clock that hangs downwards. On the ground, a monstrous being composed of a large closed eye, with long eyelashes, eyebrows, and tongue outside bears like a rump another clock. Towards the bottom of the space represented, a sheet of water opens up. To the right, some stacks are advancing towards the water. On the left, however, a geometric plane is painted, advancing towards the shore. The sky is clear and cloudless. Preserved at the MoMa in New York, it was created in 1931, and is a struggle against time: memory, in fact, is the only thing that can interrupt the incessant flow of events.