Art History, Salvador Dali

Rustam Saitov

Artist: Salvador Dali

Title: The Persistence of Memory

Date: 1931

Style: Surrealism

Formal analysis.

Composition.

This is a symmetrical composition because it gives us a sense of stability since the elements of the composition is balanced except the watches. The watches give us a sense of motion because of their curvy shapes. There are four watches in this painting, three of which appear to be molten. The only watch whose structure doesn't appear to be malformed - unlike other watches it is orange in color - is sitting on a desk-like object. The ants seem to have found a point of interest in the center of the orange watch. There are two tiny rocks sitting in the sand on the beach in the background. The rock to the left is in the shadow, and the one to the right is lit. Whereas, the mountains and the water are lit by sunlight. Here we can see the difference between soft (uncertain) and hard (certain) objects.

Line

Horizontal line (horizon in the background) gives us a sense of space. The lines of the landscape imply continuation of the landscape beyond the picture plane to the left and right. You can also draw a diagonal line between the shadowed place and the lit areas of this painting.  The lines of the clocks are curved to the degree where they appear "melted" over a tree limb.

Shape

Dali uses shape to portray the moods and feelings experienced by the unconscious mind. His shapes are a mixture of symmetrical objects, like the rectangular bluff supporting a tree and another rectangular plane beyond and above it. Juxtaposed with these symmetrical images are the organic tree and sea and the non-symmetrical clocks and carcass in the foreground. 

Form

Placing objects in front of or behind one another...