The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory

Painting by Salvador Dalí

The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory

Artist| Salvador Dalí
Year| 1952-1954
Medium| Oil on canvas
Dimensions| 25.4 cm × 33 cm (10 in × 13 in)
Location| Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida

La Desintegración de la Persistencia de la Memoria or The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory is an oil on canvas painting by the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí. It is a 1954 re-creation of the artist's famous 1931 work The Persistence of Memory, and measures a diminutive 25.4 × 33 cm. It was originally known as The Chromosome of a Highly coloured Fish's Eye Starting the Harmonious Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, and first exhibited at the Carstairs Gallery in New York in 1954.[1]

## Description

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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. These represent the breakdown of matter into atoms, a revelation in the age of quantum mechanics. Behind the bricks, the horns receding into the distance symbolise atomic missiles, highlighting that despite cosmic order, humanity could bring about its own destruction. The dead olive tree from which the soft watch hangs has also begun to break apart.[1] The hands of the watches float above their dials, with several conical objects floating in parallel formations encircling the watches. A fourth melting watch has been added. The distorted human visage from the original painting is beginning to morph into another of the strange fish floating above it. To Dalí, however, the fish was a symbol of life.

## Background

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Dalí had been greatly interested in nuclear physics since the first atomic bomb explosions of July 1945, and described the atom as his "favourite food for thought". Recognising that matter was made up of atoms which did not touch each other, he sought to replicate this in his art at the time, with items suspended and not interacting with each other, such as in The Madonna of Port Lligat.[2] To Dalí, this image was symbolic of the new physics—the quantum world which exists as both particles and waves.[citation needed] The imagery of the original Persistence of Memory can be read as a representation of Einstein's theory of relativity (although Dalí himself denied the connection to the theory), symbolizing the relativity of time and space. In this new work, quantum mechanics is symbolized by "digitizing" the old image.[citation needed]

Dalí symbolised and marked his loss of interest in surrealism with The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory as his interest in nuclear physics and religion led him elsewhere.[3]

The painting is currently owned by the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. It was transported to and exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne in 2009, along with many other Dalí paintings in the Liquid Desire exhibition.[4]

## See also

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* List of works by Salvador Dalí

## References

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1. ^ a b Tush, Peter (2009). Salvador Dalí - Liquid Desire. Melbourne, Victoria: National Gallery of Victoria. pp. 260–61\. ISBN 9780724103072.
2. ^ King, Elliott H. (2009). Salvador Dalí - Liquid Desire. Melbourne, Victoria: National Gallery of Victoria. p. 247\. ISBN 9780724103072.
3. ^ Tim McNeese; Salvador Dalí (2006). Salvador Dalí. Infobase Publishing. p. 98\. ISBN 978-1-4381-0691-5.
4. ^ Salvador Dalí - Liquid Desire. Melbourne, Victoria: National Gallery of Victoria. 2009. p. 321\. ISBN 9780724103072.

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Salvador Dalí

List of works

Paintings|

* List of works
* Landscape Near Figueras (1910)
* Vilabertran (1913)
* Cabaret Scene (1922)
* Portrait of My Father (1925)
* Young Woman at a Window (1925)
* The Basket of Bread (1926)
* Apparatus and Hand (1927)
* The Lugubrious Game (1929)
* The First Days of Spring (1929)
* The Accommodations of Desire (1929)
* The Great Masturbator (1929)
* The Invisible Man (1929–1932)
* The Persistence of Memory (1931)
* The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used as a Table (1934)
* Morphological Echo (1934–1936)
* A Chemist Lifting with Extreme Precaution the Cuticle of a Grand Piano (1936)
* Couple with Their Heads Full of Clouds (1936, 1937)
* Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) (1936)
* The Burning Giraffe (1937)
* Metamorphosis of Narcissus (1937)
* Swans Reflecting Elephants (1937)
* Apparition of Face and Fruit Dish on a Beach (1938)
* The Enigma of Hitler (1939)
* Shirley Temple, The Youngest, Most Sacred Monster of the Cinema in Her Time (1939)
* The Face of War (1940)
* Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire (1940)
* Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man (1943)
* Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening (1944)
* Basket of Bread (1945)
* The Apotheosis of Homer (1945)
* The Temptation of St. Anthony (1946)
* The Elephants (1948)
* Cartel de Don Juan Tenorio (1949)
* Leda Atomica (1949)
* The Madonna of Port Lligat (1949)
* Christ of Saint John of the Cross (1951)
* Galatea of the Spheres (1952)
* The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1952–1954)
* The Colossus of Rhodes (1954)
* Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) (1954)
* Young Virgin Auto-Sodomized by the Horns of Her Own Chastity (1954)
* The Sacrament of the Last Supper (1955)
* Living Still Life (1956)
* The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus (1958–59)
* The Ecumenical Council (1959–60)
* Galacidalacidesoxyribonucleicacid (1963)
* La Gare de Perpignan (1965)
* Tuna Fishing (1966–67)
* The Hallucinogenic Toreador (1968–1970)
* La Toile Daligram (1972)
* Dalí Seen from the Back Painting Gala from the Back Eternalised by Six Virtual Corneas Provisionally Reflected by Six Real Mirrors (1972–1973)
* Lincoln in Dalivision (1977)
* The Swallow's Tail (1983)

Painting series|

* The Seven Lively Arts (1944; 1956)

Other artworks|

* Lobster Telephone (1936)
* Lobster dress (1937)
* Mae West Lips Sofa (1937)
* Champagne Standard Lamps (1938)
* Rainy Taxi (1938)
* A Logician Devil (1951)
* Nieuw Amsterdam (1974)
* Salvador Dali's Tarot (1985)

Writings|

* Giraffes on Horseback Salad (1937)
* The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí (1942)
* Dali's Mustache (1954) (with Philippe Halsman)
* Être Dieu (1985)

Films|

* Un Chien Andalou (1929)
* L'Age d'Or (1930)
* Spellbound (1945, dream sequence)
* Destino (1946, completed 2003)

Set design
and costumes|

* Mariana Pineda (1927 production)

Museums|

* Dalí Theatre and Museum (Dalí·Jewels)
* Gala Dalí Castle House-Museum
* Salvador Dalí House Museum
* Salvador Dalí Museum
* Dalí Paris
* Dalí Universe
* Morohashi Museum of Modern Art

Related|

* Gala Dalí (wife)
* Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation
* Paranoiac-critical method
* Salvador Dalí and dance
* Chupa Chups
* Dalí Atomicus (1948 photograph)
* Salvador Dalí (1966 film)
* The Death of Salvador Dali (2005 film)
* Little Ashes (2008 film)
* Midnight in Paris (2011 film)
* Dalíland (2022 film)
* Daaaaaalí! (2023 film)
* "Salvador Dalí" (song)
* 2919 Dali (asteroid)
* Dali crater
* Portlligat (village)
* Salvador Dalí Desert
* Dalí cross

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