SURREALISM: 'The Persistence of Memory' by Salvador Dali

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Which date was this painted?
1931.
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It's not just a oil painting, it's a....
Dreamscape.
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How is the painting full of Freudian subjectivity?
Focuses on both the individual's subconscious and universal fears.
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How does it challenge the regiment of our industrial culture?
It could be considered a surrealist meditation on the collapse of our notions of a fixed cosmic order.
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How would you describe the landscape?
Unnaturally still, deserted, coastal.
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Describe the forms in the scene.
Three ‘soft’ watches are draped over a fleshy pink vaguely anthropomorphic form, a withered tree and the edge of a curiously square section of land.
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What insects can be seen and where?
One clock is crawling with ants, whilst the other seats a dead fly.
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How is there an unbearable sense of quiet?
In the absence of life and stillness of the waves in the background.
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What time of day does it appear to be?
Sunset/sunrise.
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How do the clock faces show the obliteration of time?
They're all different times.
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What is the real purpose of the time of day?
Gives an illusion of heat, that melts the clocks, as if time decays.
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Time is ruled by the environment, instead of...?
Ruling the environment it is in.
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How does the obliteration of time tap into our fears?
We do not fundamentally understand time, and so in this we try to measure it, constrain it and define it.
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What is Dali's concept of time inspired by?
Einstein's theory of relativity.
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What is, in layman's terms, Einstein's theory of relativity in relevance to the image?
Time is an abstract concept, something that is not shown on a clock, but something that expands and contracts according to our unique experience- like the melting elements in the image.
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What is Dali saying in his complete obliteration of time?
It is perhaps futile to objectify it.
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What is the first key point?
A SURREALIST MEDITATION ON THE COLLAPSE OF OUR NOTIONS OF A FIXED COSMIC ORDER.
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What is the second key point?
PROJECTS HIS OWN SUBCONSCIOUS AT WORK IN A FREUDIAN CHILDHOOD.
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What is the third key point?
RECREATION OF A DREAM.
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How does the piece reflect a Freudian childhood?
Repressed memories culminate in phobias and an obsession with the psychosexual- hence the reference to memory in the title.
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Why is the piece called 'The Persistence of Memory'?
Reflects Freudian idea that even repressed memories from childhood linger on, expressing themselves as personalities and phobias.
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What is recognisable about the land?
The cliffs of the Catalonian coast in Northern Spain.
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Where did Dali grow up?
Catalonia, Northern Spain.
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How does the work embody traits in his work as an adolescent?
Empty beaches with lonesome figures, a reflection of his anxiety and timid personality at the time.
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What is the recumbent, pink and fleshy form?
A pastiche of the artist.
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How does the melted flesh look like a face?
It possesses long insect-like lashes, closed eye, suggesting a dream state, with a penile projection behind the nose, evocative of his self-portrait in his 'Great Masturbator'.
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What is the phallus representative of?
His fear of sex and impotence, stemming from the images of STI's his father used to show him.
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What common motif does Dali use to represent death and decay?
Ants.
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What part of his childhood relates to ants?
When he found a bat being ravaged by insects- fascinated, he bit into the animal.
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How would you describe the melting clocks?
Metal acts like an over-ripe Camembert cheese, attracting ants like rotting flesh.
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What other work contains insects?
His work 'The Great Masturbator' also includes a giant mechanical grasshopper, who hangs off the distorted face.
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What is the paranoiac-critical method?
The subconscious and conscious 'converse' during hallucinatory states.
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How did Dali supposedly induce hallucinations?
Standing on his head.
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What does the hyper-real technique evoke?
The hallucinatory effect of a dream.
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What does the juxtaposition of the realistic coastal scenery, naturalistic rendering and surrealism of elements do?
Gives us this world of two halves (the subconscious and conscious) making it a disturbing scene.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

It's not just a oil painting, it's a....

Back

Dreamscape.

Card 3

Front

How is the painting full of Freudian subjectivity?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

How does it challenge the regiment of our industrial culture?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

How would you describe the landscape?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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