Salvador Dali: The Persistence Of Memory

Art throughout the many years that it has existed has been seen in many different ways, shapes and forms, whether it is a painting from the renaissance area or a sculpture from the modern era. Even some of the technologies and sports are considered pieces of “Art” although under the pop culture category, still a part of the art family. In the 1930’s there wasn’t anything like what we get to experience with social media and all the technology there is now. In fact the 1930’s was a part of the great depression which was a time for sorrow and mourning as WWII was going on and most everyone was poor. The people of this time has to figure out something to do for entertainment and to get away from all the sorrow, so the people looked to painting to express themselves and give a sense of entertainment. One of the most famous artists was alive during this time, by the name of Salvador Dali. This man created some o the world’s greatest artworks and one of the most known is: The Persistence of Memory. This particular has many different formal elements to it and I am going to help express these elements.

Salvador Dalí
The Persistence of Memory
1931 9 1/2 x 13" (24.1 x 33 cm) Oil on Canvas

There are many elements classified under the term formal elements, those being: lines, shape and volume, texture and pattern, light and value, color, space,
You can see that there is a value right at the center of the picture where the gradation goes from dark in the foreground to light in the background. This light really helps represent the color within this picture as it can make objects with a lighter color look darker than they appear. And the color scheme that I detect was used is the complimentary color