Art in a blink

One night I was tired and had a headache. My wife an I were about to go out with some friends but at the last minute I made up my mind and stayed at home. (...) We had finished dinner with a fine Camembert and once I was alone, I leaned at the table for a while, thinking about the issues of the "super soft " of this soft cheese. I got up and went to my studio to take a last glance at my work. The picture I was working on depicted a landscape around Portlligat...

In the foreground I had sketched a cut and leafless olive tree. This view was to serve as a backdrop for something, but what? I was looking for a striking image but couldn't find it. I was about to turn off the light and leave, when I literally saw the solution: two soft watches, one of which was hanging pitifully on the olive branch. Despite my migraine, I set up my palette and proceeded to work. (Salvador Dalí) .

Salvador Dalí's "The Persistence of Memory" and its limp watches immerse us in an imaginary realm. This tiny painting with its fine strokes invites the beholder to take a closer and more careful look at it: four pocket watches that time has softened cover the canvas. A fly on the left watch draws our attention.

Flies were a common symbol in Renaissance paintings: they represented the painter's ability to deceive the viewer's gaze through the naturalistic nature of the painting. The fly is all the more relevant here as it highlights the constant flow of time. It entered the scene uninvited and is therefore not bound by the temporal laws. It may leave the scene when it pleases.

In the bottom of the picture, ants devour an orange watch. These recurring insects in the painter's work evoke death, decay and decline - like fingerprints left by the passing time.

With that dreamlike vision, where time stretches like a piece of rubber, Dalí explores the notion of time and challenges us to do the same by meditating on our ability to master it.

Nathan.

1. Salvador Dalí, The persistence of Memory, 1931, oil on canvas, 24x33 cm, MoMA, New York.

Arasse, Daniel. L’annonciation italienne, une histoire de perspective. Paris: Hazan, 2010.

Arasse, Daniel. On y voit rien. Paris : Denoël, 2005.

https://www.kazoart.com/blog/oeuvre-a-la-loupe-la-persistance-de-la-memoire-dali/

https://major-prepa.com/culture-generale/la-persistance-de-la-memoire-salvador-dali/

Salcman, Michael. The Persistence of Memory (1931) by Salvador Dalí (1904-1989), World Neurosurgery 76, 5 (November 2011): 364-367.

Shanes , Eric. Salvador Dalí New York. New York: Parkstone International, 2014.

#dali #memory #watch #liquid #time #surrealism