The Persistence of Memory

La persistencia de la memoria (1931) or The Persistence of Memory is quite possibly the most famous painting by artist Salvador Dali. The painting has also been popularly known as Soft Watches, Droopy Watches, or Melting Clocks. It is currently displayed in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, where it has been since 1934. The well-known surrealistic piece introduced the image of the soft melting pocket watch. It's possible to recognize a human figure in the middle of the composition, in the strange "monster" that the same Dalí called the "paranoiac-critical camembert": it's a head (probably a self-portrait of the artist). In general the tree means life, but, in this case, has the same function of the rest of the elements in the picture: to impress anxiety and, in a certain way, terror. The golden cliffs in the upper right hand corner are reminiscent of Dali's homeland, Catalonia. The painting was first exhibited in Paris at the Galerie Pierre Colle in 1931, where it was purchased by the New York gallerist Julien Levy for $250. In 1933 it was sold to Mrs. Stanley B Resor, who donated the piece anonymously to the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1934. The painting soon became the best-known of Dalí's works, and has frequently been reproduced in postcards, posters, and other media. By 1938 it was so much a part of popular culture that versions of Persistence appear in the background of the animated cartoon Porky in Wackyland.