Art Appreciation: The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali (Essay Sample)

Art Appreciation
Name:
Industrial Affiliation:
Art Appreciation
The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali
After perusing through the Google Cultural Institute, I decided to select the painting by Salvador Dali titled "The Persistence of Memory”. The Persistence of Memory (La persistencia de la memoria in Spanish) is among the most recognizable artwork of the controversial painter Salvador Dali. The painting was completed in 1931 and is currently exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The painting is colloquially named according to the more descriptive yet incorrect titles such as ‘The Melting Watches’ or ‘The Soft Watches’.
The painting’s most notable feature is the melting pocket watches. Also in the painting, ants seem to be attracted to metal as they would be to rotting flesh and bread crumbs CITATION Wik16 \l 1033 (Wikipedia, 2016). A horrid disfigured creature is seen in the foreground of the painting. This creature is especially catchy as it appears in most of Dali’s art. In general, the art is made using Dali’s famous method of ignoring and incorporating symmetry in the same painting to create an illogical yet strangely symmetrical painting.
The painting was made in the early 1900’s. As compared to the previous century, the society in this period was beginning to tolerate radical thinkers. Rapid scientific development and discoveries had also changed how humanity viewed the universe. Thus, there was room for a controversial writer like Dali to develop his skills. The artist drew this painting in a state of induced hallucinations. This was however not the unique case as most of his paintings were done in the same state. Dali was a great follower of Sigmud Freud’s writings in psychology. He believed that dreams and hallucinations were coded messages sent by our subconscious to ourselves. This is the reason why he induced hallucinations while painting. However, there were also suggestions that Dali might have incorporated quantum physics in the painting. It is claimed that the painting could have been a representation of Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity. Dawn Ades is believed to have theorised that that the watches might have represented an unconscious notion of the relativity of space and time and an expression of the change in the way time was conceived CITATION Tha82 \l 1033 (Thames & Hudson, 1982).
Viewing the painting through the Google Art Project was a better experience in terms of understanding the painting. This is because the physical details present themselves clearly for examination unlike viewing it through a looking glass. It is also a better experience in the fact that the viewer has ample time to examine the features of the painting, unlike in a public forums where others have to be taken into consideration.
On the other hand, even though the physical details present themselves clea...