PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY

Dalí has isolated the central image of his best-known painting, The Persistence of Memory (1931) and has immortalized it in bronze. One of the most recognisable images of twentieth century art, the painting has been a centre-piece of the collection of the MoMA in New York since 1934. The sculpture depicts a limp watch draped over the branch of an olive tree, typical of Cadaques scenery. Dalí creates an unexpected contradiction, presenting a hard, precise object, the watch, and portraying it soft, malleable. Time loses form and with it, the ‘power’ and pressure it has over a rule-bound world. The melting structure of the watch symbolizes time’s irrelevance in the dream state.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Date: conceived and first cast in 1980
Material: bronze
Technique: lost wax process
Edition size: 6 plus 3 EA and 3 HC (plus 2 authorized foundry proofs)
Height: 191 cm
Maquette: original gouache, Persistence of Time, 1980
Direct intervention (created by Dalí): the idea, image, and original maquette
Indirect intervention (created by artisans): lost wax process and patina