Salvador Dalí (Spanish)
1931
First Impressions
When I look at this drawing, I first notice three clocks drooping or in away, melting. As I look more closely, I notice that there are actually four pocket watches (one upside down). There may also be references to sundials or other forms of telling time, for example the tree's shadow. It is difficult to tell whether it is dawn/sunrise or the evening/sunset. In the background, there are mountains/cliffs, and a either a lake, a pond, or the ocean. There are two species of animals in this painting, one is ants, and the other is a fly. Ants in Dalí's life symbolize death, because when he was a child, he found a bat with a broken wing, and cared for it. Unfortunately, the bat was eaten by ants, and that is why the ants symbolize death. There seems to be an "odd" balance between life and death in the tree. Normally, a tree would symbolize life, but the tree is dead in this painting. On the ground in the foreground, there seems to be a weird animal or something. I also know that Dalí is a Surrealist, and many of his paintings are very "dream-like." Lastly, I know that he painted this painting while waiting for Gala, his wife and muse to come home. All in all, I think that this is a beautiful painting, and I really like how the light and shadows really give the viewer a great sense of perspective and time.
What I have Learned
This painting"epitomizes Dalí's theory of 'softness' and 'hardness,' which was central to his thinking time." The figure in the center of this painting is indeed a human, and not only a human, it Dalí, represented as a strange "moster," "that Dalí used in several period pieces to represent himself." The ants in fact are a symbol for death. Like all of the elements in this painting, the tree has "the same function as the rest if the elements in the picture: to impress anxiety and , in a certain way, terror, although it is likely that it was conceived as a functional element on which to drape one of the watches." The "golden" cliffs in the background actually represent Catalonia, Dalí's homeland. These are "derived from the rocks and cliffs at Cape Creus, where the Pyrenees meet the sea" (moma.org). A very interesting observation noticed by The Museum of Modern Art, is that, "Hard objects become inexplicably limp in this bleak and infinite dreamscape, while metal attracts ants." Dalí used (and mastered) in this painting something that he called "the usual paralyzing trick fo the eye fooling, the most imperialist fury of precision, to systemize confusion and thus to help discredit the world completely" (Dalí). As said by The Museum of Modern Art, "Here time must loose all meaning." A great way to also put this is: "time bends" (MoMA). The story behind this painting is that the original idea came to Dalí on a hot, summer day. Gala was out shopping and Dalí had a great headache. After his meal, he noticed some half eaten Camembert cheese that had become runny and melted because of the heat of the sunny day. That night, while he was "searching his soul for something to paint" (Wikipedia, the Persistence of Memory), he had a dream of clocks melting on a landscape. So far, he had a plain landscape with rocky cliffs, and a tree on a platform. In a period of two to three hours, he added the melting pocket watches, "make this the iconic image it is today." (Same as before).
Materials: Oil on canvas. Dimensions: 9 1/2 by 13'' (24.1 by 33 cm).
(Also many of the quotes are from there)
Great Zoom Feature: http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=79018
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