The Persistence of Memory

Salvador Dali, "The Persistence of Memory," 1913
Type: Oil on Canvas
Location: Museum of Modern Art, New York City.

Imitationalism and Literal Qualities:

The, "Persistence of memory," by Salvador Dali is a rather poor piece of artwork... When speaking in terms of imitationalism, that is. Imitationalism is when art is portrayed realistically, strongly imitates life itself. This style of art focuses on realistic representation and suggests artwork must be realistic before it can be considered successful. The "Persistence of Memory," By Salvador Dali does not portray 'real life,' or realistic themes. It portrays a scenery of many clocks melting in a desert... This is not a scene that can take place in the real world. (At least not in this day and age..) However, the use of colour and shading that Dali uses are fairly realistic and give the illusion that the objects portrayed above are really 3D, when they are simply 2D on a canvas. The question many imitationalists may ask themselves is, "How real does it look?" I believe this question can be answered at one glance of this painting. "Not at all."

Formalism and Design Qualities:

One question many formalists may ask themselves about a piece of art is, "Is there Unity?" Unity is one of the main aspects that formalist may look for in a painting. In other words, the visual organization of a piece of artwork. In Salvador Dali's painting, I believe that he successfully uses the 'unity' element of art successfully. He uses repetition and harmony in the clocks by drawing each clock similarly to the next, and placing them all in the same area. He uses unity in colour, as well. In this painting, composition is used and makes a balanced contrast between blue and yellow, and the value of dark and light. There's also a good balance in the positive and negative space.

Emotionalism and Expressive Qualities:

The emotions expressed in this piece are not happy, energetic, jumpy, or even particularly "alive"... I believe that painting gives off the emotion of... Well, I would say it looks pretty "dead," slow, sleepy, lethargic, stagnant, and even "melting." The colours are fairly smooth and blend into each other, none of them really pop. The atmosphere of the painting overall seems to be calm, and not in the least bit full of life. The melting clocks actually give me the feeling of melting on the couch during a summer evening, not wanting to move at all. All in all, looking at this image does not really give me the sense of energy, but sleepiness and the distortion of "memory."