The persistence of memory is one of the best known works of Salvador Dalì and of the whole of surrealism.
Made in 1931, therefore two years after joining the surrealist group, the painting is small, 24 cm x 33 cm and is kept at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
The original title of the painting was "soft clocks" and was purchased in 1932 by the gallery owner Julien Levy who gave the painting its new title precisely the persistence of memory. The work was then sold to MOMA in 1934 for a modest price of only $ 350.
Dalì himself accurately described the genesis of the painting.
After an organized dinner at home with some friends, Dali is not feeling very well, he has a circle on his head. The group is about to go to the cinema but Dalì doesn't feel like it: he decides to stay at home and invites his wife and muse, the famous Gala (who we see in the photo with the painter) to follow the group.
The painter at that point left alone begins to reflect on some Camembert cheese, a French soft cheese, which he had eaten and which perhaps had contributed to giving him this sense of discomfort.
Dalì after this moment of delirious reflection on the softness of cheese and before retiring to his bedroom, goes to his atelier to take a last look at the painting he was working on in those days.
It was a small desolate landscape with the cliffs of Capo delle Croci, an area located at the south-eastern end of Catalonia, not far from the border with France where Dalì grew up. According to Dalì, this landscape, where there was also a dry olive tree, was to be the background for an idea that he had not yet found. And here comes inspiration suddenly. Dalì stimulated by the softness of the cheese begins to work with enthusiasm despite the increasingly strong sense of malaise. After a couple of hours, on Gala's return home, the painting is finished. Dalì had inserted in the painting some pocket watches in a state of liquefaction, transforming the landscape into a reflection on the relativity of time.
Gala was right, when seeing the finished painting she exclaimed “this work will not be forgotten by anyone after seeing it!”.
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6 фев 2021
