The Persistence of Memory
Dalí's small painting of pocket watches melting over a tree branch, a table edge, and a vaguely human form — the canonical surrealist image.
Origin
Salvador Dalí painted it in 1931 in Paris. The canvas is unexpectedly small (24 × 33 cm). The landscape is the Catalan coast near his home in Port Lligat. Dalí said the melting watches came from watching a Camembert cheese soften in the sun; the form at the center is a distorted self-portrait. It entered MoMA's collection in 1934 and never left.
Modern usage
The melting clocks are the universal symbol for surrealism, distorted time, and slipping reality. Used in films (Salvador Dalí himself designed Hitchcock's dream sequence in Spellbound), ad campaigns, and any visual that wants to say 'this scene isn't quite right.' 'Going Dalí' means surreal in a deliberately stylized way.
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