The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory

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The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory
Salvador Dalí, 1952-1954
Oil on canvas
25.4 × 33 cm, 10 × 13 in
Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida

La desintegración de la persistencia de la memoria or The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (oil on canvas, c. 1952 to 1954), is a painting by the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí. It is an oil on canvas re-creation of the artist's famous 1931 work The Persistence of Memory, and measures a diminutive 25.4 × 33 cm.

[edit] Subject

In this version, the landscape from the original work has been flooded with water. Disintegration depicts what is occurring both above and below the water's surface. The landscape of Cadaqués is now hovering above the water. The plane and block from the original is now divided into brick-like shapes that float in relation to each other, with nothing binding them, the tree from which the soft watch hangs being similarly segmented. The hands of the soft watches float above their dials, with several pointed objects resembling rhinoceros horns floating in parallel formations encircling the watches. The distorted human visage from the original painting is beginning to morph into another of the strange fish floating above it. However, to Dali, the fish was a symbol of life.^{[citation needed]}

To Dalí, this image was symbolic of the psychological effect that the advent of the atomic bomb had on humanity.^{[citation needed]} It will be noted that the imagery of The Persistence of Memory can be read as a representation of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, symbolizing the warping of time by gravity; Einstein's equations lay at the core of the science of nuclear reaction, which presumably inspired Dali to revisit this particular work.

This painting is currently owned by the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.

[edit] Sources

www.dali-gallery.com [1] [2]

v • d • e Salvador Dalí

List of works

Selected Paintings	Landscape Near Figueras (1910) • Vilabertrin (1913) • Fiesta in Figueres (1914-16) • Port of Cadaqués (Night) (1918-19) • The Artist's Father at Llane Beach (1920) • The Garden of Llaner (Cadaqués) (1920-21) • Cabaret Scene (1922) • Cubist Self-Portrait with "La Publicitat" (1923) • Self-portrait with L'Humanitie (1923) • Portrait of Luis Bunuel (1924) • Siphon and Small Bottle of Rum (1924) • The Basket of Bread (1926) • Honey Is Sweeter Than Blood (1927) • The Lugubrious Game (1929) • The First Days of Spring (1929) • The Great Masturbator (1929) • The Persistence of Memory (1931) • The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used As a Table (1934) • Morphological Echo (1934-36) • Archaeological Reminiscence of Millet's Angelus (1935) • Autumn Cannibalism (1936) • Lobster Telephone (1936) • Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) (1936) • The Burning Giraffe(1937) • Metamorphosis of Narcissus (1937) • Swans Reflecting Elephants (1937) • Apparition of Face and Fruit Dish on a Beach (1938) • The Sublime Moment (1938) • Shirley Temple, The Youngest, Most Sacred Monster of the Cinema in Her Time (1939) • The Face of War (1940) • Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire (1940) • Honey is Sweeter than Blood (1941) • Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening (1944) • Galarina (1944-45) • Basket of Bread (1945) • 'The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1946) • The Elephants (1948) • Leda Atomica (1949) • The Madonna of Port Lligat (1949) • Christ of Saint John of the Cross (1951) • Galatea of the Spheres (1952) • The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory(1952-54) • Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) (1954) • Young Virgin Auto-Sodomized by the Horns of Her Own Chastity (1954) • The Sacrament of the Last Supper (1955) • Still Life Moving Fast (1956) • The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus (1958-59) • Tuna Fishing (1966-1967) • The Hallucinogenic Toreador (1968-1970) • La Toile Daligram (1972) • The Swallowtail (1983) •

Other works	Writings: L'Âge d'or • Libretto for Bacchanale • Giraffes on Horseback Salad Films: Un chien andalou Animated Films:Destino Logos:Chupa Chups Opera:Être Dieu Sculpture:Lobster Telephone • Mae West Lips Sofa Costumes:Costumes for Mariana Pineda

Related articles	Castle of Púbol • Dalí Universe • Espace Dalí • Dalí Theatre and Museum • Salvador Dalí Museum • Salvador Dalí (film) • Paranoiac-critical method