The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory

Infobox Painting|

---

backcolor=#FBF5DF
painting_alignment=right
image_size=300px

title=The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory
artist=Salvador Dalí
year=1952-1954
type=Oil on canvas
height=25.4
width=33
height_inch=10
width_inch = 13
diameter_cm =
diameter_inch =
city=St. Petersburg, Florida
museum=Salvador Dalí Museum

"La desintegración de la persistencia de la memoria" or "The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory" (oil on canvas, c. 1952 to 1954), is a painting by the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí. It is an oil on canvas re-creation of the artist's famous 1931 work "The Persistence of Memory", and measures a diminutive 25.4 × 33 cm.

ubject

In this version, the landscape from the original work has been flooded with water. "Disintegration" depicts what is occurring both above and below the water's surface. The landscape of Cadaqués is now hovering above the water. The plane and block from the original is now divided into brick-like shapes that float in relation to each other, with nothing binding them, the tree from which the "soft watch" hangs being similarly segmented. The hands of the "soft watches" float above their dials, with several conical objects floating in parallel formations encircling the watches. The distorted human visage from the original painting is beginning to morph into another of the strange fish floating above it. However, to Dali, the fish was a symbol of life.Fact|date=March 2007

To Dalí, this image was symbolic of the psychological effect that the advent of the atomic bomb had on humanity.Fact|date=March 2007 It will be noted that the imagery of "The Persistence of Memory" can be read as a representation of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, symbolizing the warping of time by gravity; Einstein's equations lay at the core of the science of nuclear reaction, which presumably inspired Dali to revisit this particular work.

This painting is currently owned by the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.

ources

*www.dali-gallery.com [http://www.dali-gallery.com/html/analyses/1952_02a.htm] [http://www.dali-gallery.com/html/galleries/painting19.htm]