The great artist Salvador Dali once said: “Surrealism is destructive, but it only destroys what it considers to be obstacles limiting our vision. " He surely put this quote into practice when he created what some consider his greatest work, and what many consider his best-known work: his 1931 masterpiece "The Persistence of Memory ". Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essaySalvador Dali was born on May 11, 1904, in Figueres, Spain. In 1922, Dali attended the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid, Spain. It was here that he began to experiment with different artistic styles, including metaphysics and cubism. After college, Dali quickly joined the Surrealist movement in 1929, where he associated with many other notable Surrealist artists of the time, including Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso, and René Magrite. Dali married Gala Dali in 1934. In 1980, Dali's body was ravaged by Parkinson's-like symptoms, which particularly affected his right hand. This was detrimental to his mental health and well-being, and it ultimately ended his artistic abilities. Dali died in 1989 of heart failure. Throughout his life, he held many eccentric beliefs about time and space, which ultimately led him to create the persistence of memory. This painting began as a simple landscape drawing, as described in The Secret Life of Salvador Dali (his autobiography). However, after finishing a meal eating runny Camembert, he "ponders on the philosophical problems of supersoft" and decides to take one last look at his work in progress. At that moment, the image of two pocket watches hanging from olive branches came to his mind and his masterpiece was completed two hours later. The work represents a deserted landscape on the edge of a beach. Four pocket watches are shown in this image: one hanging above an olive branch, one slumped on a rectangular prism shape, an unmelted one covered in ants, and a melted one resting on a head shape. Interestingly, this head shape, thought to be Dali's side profile, had appeared in Dali's earlier works such as The Great Masturbator (1929) and The Enigma of Desire (1929). It is fascinating that none of the pocket watches show the same time, representing how relative time is in a dream. As in all of his works, The Persistence of Memory showcases Dali's painstakingly meticulous painting technique and attention to detail. The softness of the oil in this oil painting captures the essence of being in a dreamlike state. Dali used both space and form in this work of art. First, he used the element of form by describing pocket watches as melting. The clocks are now irrational. Dali's use of form shows how time is relative and how, in a dream state, the concept of time does not even enter the subconscious. Next, Dali used the element of space in this work of art by describing the landscape as wide open and seemingly endless. The use of a desolate, barren landscape became something of a cliché among surrealist artists of the 1930s and 1940s. In many paintings, the use of a barren landscape is confusing. In The Persistence of Memory, this works well with the idea that dreams have no boundaries or limitations. Dali uses unity and balance in this painting. He first uses the property of unity by painting a few watches.