Paintings in the surrealism period are difficult to interpret. Critics have stated that it is nearly impossible to explain in rational language what the significance of a surrealist piece of work is because seems to have been conceived in a state of hallucination. In Salvador Dali’s work, The Persistence of Memory, one can assume just that.
This painting consists of relatively awkward images in a setting that is outside in a fairly barren landscape. Yellows and blues are in the sky that meets up with a body of water and a cliff in the background. The main focus would be the three limp watches. One is on a branch of a dead tree, another that seems to be sliding off the side of a box of some kind, and the last one looks to be resting on what could be a rock at first glimpse. After looking more and reading about this painting, I have learned that what I once thought was a rock, is actually a “profiled self-portrait—a motif that [Salvador
My interpretation of the painting is not of concrete evidence within the piece, but rather how the title plays the most important role. Dali himself said that he saw the painting as, “hand-painted dream photographs” that were produced to “stamp themselves indelibly upon the mind” (Fiero 861). Thus the title, The Persistence of Memory, fits the painting exactly how the artist intended. So, it can be assumed that this painting is of a dream. You wonder whether or not the artist was under the influence of some type of narcotic, but nevertheless I believe that Salvador Dali wanted the audience to look at this painting and never forget it from that point onward. Dali never intentionally wanted the audience to perceive the work as something to analyze completely. I believe that this work of art was meant to have some kind of impact on the viewer. One that Dali never wanted the viewer to forget. He had a perverse desire in shocking his view
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