The Persistence Of Memory

The Persistence Of Memory

Art; a three letter word with a million meanings. Salvador Dali, one of the most famous painters in the 1900's understood art. He portrayed his idea of art through thousands of paintings and sculptures. Salvador Dali helped the world see art from his point of view. He allowed people to accept the abnormal and to take a look at life in general not only from a different point of view but in a different state of mind. His paintings made, and still to this day really make people think, which is how art should be. Art should be something that tantalizes all senses and puts the viewer's mind to work.

Art is a way of expressing of any feeling no matter what. Whether it be taste, smell, touch, sound, sight or thought; art is there. To Salvador Dali this is exactly what art was. All of his paintings have such deep meaning beyond color on a canvas. Some of his most important memories were those from when he was a child. He grew up in an area surrounded by enormous rocky mountains. In this painting he shows these mountains and cliffs by using very vivid browns and rust oranges. His Persistence of Memory is the mountains where he grew up as a child. Every piece of his art has very deep and hidden meanings. This shows not only that he was a genius when it came to mastering the feeling art should give the viewer, but that he was able to produce truly intelligent art. Art with thought. Art that is not only beautiful to look at, but brilliant when you know what the feeling was the artist was going for is, and are able to understand each part of the painting.

The main thing that stands out in this painting is all the melting objects. The off- white creature in the front perplexes the viewer when they take their first look at the painting. Many theories point to it being Dali himself, melting away in the place he loved so much as a child.. This is interesting because it seems like he does not really want to be a part of the painting. More or less he wants people to know he was there at one time, but not so much anymore. By hiding himself with the melting image, the viewer does not comprehend that he was the center of all things surrounding him. Instead the viewer only can only see a white blob that is stuck in the middle of the painting, which makes the viewer think about what it could be. This is art. Thought about something so simple, is art.

Another thing in this painting that stands out in the three melting clocks. It helps the viewer get a better idea of what it would have been like to be there in The Persistence Of Memory. There it is fiery hot; hot enough to melt metal. The other thing the clocks stand for is time. By having the clocks melting away, Dali is trying to portray the fact that here, in The Persistence of Memory, time is irrelevant. In his own perfect world, which was this place, time meant nothing. This, is brilliant. This is art.

By being able to make the viewer feel these emotions, heat and carelessness of something so important like time shows that Dali was a true artist. It is one type of art to be able to paint a picture, but to make people feel real emotions as if they were there is so amazing and so extravagant that it must take a true master of art to do this. To think about what the meaning of every little