The Persistence of Memory (1931) is probably the most iconic and recognizable paintings of Surrealism. Frequently referenced in well-liked culture, the small canvas (24x33 cm) is sometimes known as "Melting Clocks", "The Comfortable Watches" and "The Melting Watches". The painting depicts a dreamworld during which common objects are deformed and displayed in a bizarre and irrational means: watches, solid and laborious objects seem like inexplicably limp and melting in the desolate landscape. Dalí paints his fantastical vision in a meticulous and real looking manner: he effortlessly integrates the real and the imaginary in order "to systemize confusion and thus to assist discredit completely the world of reality". When asked in regards to the limp watches, the artist compared their softness to overripe cheese saying that they present "the camembert of time". The thought of rot and decay is most evident within the gold watch on the left, which is swarmed by ants. Ants, a typical motif in Dalí’s artwork are normally linked to decay and dying.

He set the scene in a desolate panorama that was probably impressed by the landscape of his homeland, the Catalan coast. The influence of the Catalan panorama additionally seems in one other aspect of the painting: the artist inserts himself into the scene in the form of a wierd fleshy creature in the middle of the painting. In response to Dalí, the self-portrait was primarily based on a rock formation at Cap de Creus in northeast Catalonia. Some students have also drawn a parallel between the self-portrait and a bit of Hieronymus Bosch's The Backyard of Earthly Delights (1510-1515) - on the right side of the left panel Bosch depicts rocks, bushes, and small animals that resemble Dalí’s profile with the outstanding nose and lengthy eyelashes. The melting watch, one in all Dalí’s most powerful and potent motifs, continued to play an essential position in his artwork. Two many years after The Persistence of Memory, Dalí recreated his well-known work in the painting The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory Wave memory booster (1952-1954). As the title suggests, the painting shows the disintegration of the world depicted in the original painting, reflecting a world changed by the nuclear age.

The painting confirmed Dalí’s growing interest in quantum physics: he added rectangular blocks that symbolize "the atomic energy source" and missile-like objects that reference the atomic bomb. The Persistence of Memory was first shown in 1932 on the Julien Levy Gallery in New York. In 1934, the painting was anonymously donated to the Museum of Trendy Artwork in New York, Memory Wave where it remains till this day. The Persistence of Memory (Spanish: La persistencia de la memoria) is a 1931 painting by artist Salvador Dalí, and one in every of his most recognizable works. First shown at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1932, since 1934 the painting has been in the collection of the Museum of Fashionable Artwork (MoMA) in New York City, which acquired it from an anonymous donor. It is widely acknowledged and incessantly referenced in common tradition, and sometimes referred to by more descriptive (though incorrect) titles, comparable to "Melting Clocks", "The Soft Watches" or "The Melting Watches".

The effectively-known surrealist piece launched the image of the comfortable melting pocket watch. It epitomizes Dalí's idea of "softness" and "hardness", which was central to his considering on the time. As Dawn Adès wrote, "The tender watches are an unconscious symbol of the relativity of area and time, a Surrealist meditation on the collapse of our notions of a fixed cosmic order". This interpretation suggests that Dalí was incorporating an understanding of the world introduced by Albert Einstein's idea of special relativity. Asked by Ilya Prigogine whether this was the truth is the case, Dalí replied that the comfortable watches weren't impressed by the idea of relativity, Memory Wave however by the surrealist perception of a Camembert melting within the solar. It is possible to recognize a human figure in the course of the composition, within the strange "monster" (with a variety of texture near its face, and plenty of contrast and tone in the image) that Dalí utilized in a number of contemporary items to represent himself - the summary form turning into something of a self-portrait, reappearing frequently in his work.