Dali The Persistence of Memory

The Persistence of Memory is a 1931 painting by Salvador Dali. It is one of his most recognizable works. The painting has been on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1934. As Dawn Ades wrote, "The soft watches are an unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time, a Surrealist meditation on the collapse of our notions of a fixed cosmic order." The orange clock at the bottom left of the painting is covered in ants. Dali often used ants in his paintings as a symbol for death, as well as a symbol of female genitalia.

This painting has a special meaning for me. My grandmother's coffee table book has this on the cover. The book itself is a book on Dali that is written in Spanish. So, I never could actually read the words, but I was often caught staring; perplexed at the melting clocks. I didn't even know the title of the work until just now. Wherever she moved, the same book with the same painting was on the same table.

Persistent memory? I think so.