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The Persistence of Memory

Abstract and Modernist Paintings

The Persistence of Memory is Salvador Dali's best-known 1931 painting, a small canvas showing several limp, melting pocket watches draped over the branches of a dead tree, a rocky shoreline and an ambiguous fleshy form, set against a barren coastal landscape said to be based on the cliffs near Dali's home in Catalonia. The soft watches, an image Dali later said was suggested by the sight of a melting Camembert cheese, have become one of the most widely reproduced single images in Surrealist painting, read by critics as a meditation on the instability of time itself.

Facts
Year Created
1931 1
Medium
Oil on canvas 1
Location
Museum of Modern Art, New York, United States 2
Classification
Genre
Painting 1
Medium
Medium (category)
Oil on Canvas 1
Connections

Created By

Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)

In Form

Painting, Art Forms

In Genre

Painting, Art Forms

In Movement

Surrealism, Movements
Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
In the Other Atlases

Located In

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is located.

Sources
1. Gardner's Art Through the Ages
Fred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner), Cengage Learning
  • chapter on Surrealism, section on Salvador Dali
  • Genre reference
    The Persistence of Memory is Salvador Dali's best-known 1931 painting, a small canvas showing several limp, melting pocket watches draped over the branches of a dead tree, a rocky shoreline and an ambiguous fleshy form, set against a barren coastal landscape said to be based on the cliffs near Dali's home in Catalonia.
2. Museum of Modern Art Collection
The Museum of Modern Art, New YorkMoMA collection record, The Persistence of MemoryView the Source
The Persistence of Memory (Wikipedia)
In Group: Surrealist Dreamscapes, Lead
Quote, In Group: Surrealist Dreamscapes, Lead
The Persistence of Memory (Catalan: La persistència de la memòria, Spanish: La persistencia de la memoria) is a 1931 painting by artist Salvador Dalí and one of the most recognizable works of Surrealism.
View the Source
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