Dali clocks are the popular clocks that were displayed in the renowned painting of Salvador Dali, the painting that was named “The Persistence Of Memory”, for those of you who aren’t familiar, down below is the picture of the painting that has managed to make millions of minds all around the world think
The reason why it astounds everyone is how people subjectively try to derive meaning out of these clocks in the painting. The painting was made in 1931 and was a part of the surrealist movement ( which was a movement among artists of expressing irrational thoughts and looking into the subconscious mind ). It was one of the very first paintings that actually advocated for this unique movement
The painting itself displays an open and silent place with the clocks hanging and no movement whatsoever at all. This is what astounds many as the hanging clocks are often interpreted as time has no value in this portrayed land. If you ignore the melting clocks for a moment and just look at the landscape, one feels like time doesn’t really carry any kind of weight whatsoever and you can just wither and do literally anything there without having any consequences as time itself doesn’t care anymore. One interesting thing that is often mentioned by many of the interpreters is how there are no waves shown in the sea in the background, which shows the sheer lack of movement. And shows that even water of the see has been given enough time to make its moment come to a hault. This promotes the already provoked sense of immense quite and nothingness in this portrayed land
More About What The Painting Means
The painting looks natural in the most unnatural of ways, for instance, the dead tree that has grown out of a man-made tabletop, which is obviously nothing natural. And another clock just lying on the same tabletop while an overturned time-piece is being eaten away by ants, which is obviously weird behavior as, a timepiece is a metallic object, which no ant would prefer over dead meat. But this is also often interpreted as a sign of portraying Dali’s obsession with food and how eating itself, an activity of necessity for all living beings, consumes time, and this land of no time, the ants can actually eat in peace without having to fear time. Many also interpret these ants as being symbolism for human beings and how we eat away time each and every passing moment of the day
The melted clocks are also often interpreted as have become more humane as it is acting like that the clock itself is tired of all the time telling, and time itself as a phenomenon and just wants a break and has whithered in a motion like it is resting without a care in the world at least for this quite moment.
Looking at the background and how the light of the sun is being reflected from the cliffs, it gives off the vibe of a sunset, and the clocks don’t seem to be caring and just rest away as many say
Some have even interpreted the cliffs in the back as being from the Catalonian cost in North of Spain which is where Dali originally belonged to and represents a part of his childhood perhaps. Moving on to the clock lying on the ground on top of a figurine, this figurine is quite optical illusionistic ( this basically refers to the interpretation of one object as many different objects ), as it might come off as something from one angle and completely other from another, some when seeing it for the first time consider it a duck, some blanket and others an eye. Some experts have even analyzed for there to be a resemblance between this figurine and the actual face of Dali himself and say that this is him portraying himself
Provocations that come with this painting is to just go out of this rational world we look in for a second and think a bit outside even for the only while we are staring at this amazingly praised painting. There is without a doubt thousands of interpretations that have been derived from this ambiguous painting, but that’s the whole point of it all, to make people think about the structure of the painting and relate to it in the real world in different ways. The painting is also sometimes interpreted as the world of the dreams as portrayed by everything in the painting sleeping and resting. Moreover, some have also linked this painting to the idea of time dilation and the basic properties of time which we came to know after this clock had been made and not even completely understand as of this moment,
And if you are interested, and want to buy such melted clocks like the ones in the painting, as these work great as decor along with just telling time, there are quite a few that you can buy from Amazon as of now. Down below is a list of some of our favorites
Creatov Decorative Dali Watch Melting Clock – Surrealistic Table Shelf Desk Fashion Clock
Yes, a very funny looking clock and great for any Dali fans out there, you can also give this off as a gift to your friends and family as this is something that will surely surprise them, a problem with this clock is that some of the people who have purchased this clock say that it sometimes stops telling time but the clock has worked just fine for most of the people who purchased this clock. It is quite cheap at a price of $12.45 and comes with an overall rating of 4.1 stars out of 848 reviews
Veronese Design Cool Bronze Finish Melted Mantel Clock
Another great looking Dali clock that you can use as decor literally anywhere and you can also use this as a gift for your friends and family, it has the following dimensions:10.25 in tall, 6 in long, 1.5 in deep, comes with a bronze finish all over and is available at Amazon for a price of $67.50, though only has 4 ratings on Amazon, two of them which are 4 stars and 2 5 stars which gives it an average rating of 4.5 stars on Amazon
Art Nouveau 11 1/4″ High Melting Bronze Table Clock
Another bronze looking Dali Clock which also comes with a bronze look, and comes with the following dimensions : 11 in tall, 6.25 in long, 4 in deep, uses a single 1 AA battery, it is available for $94.50 on Amazon as of now. It has an overall rating of 4.3 Stars out of 38 ratings with 64% of the ratings are 5 stars
Automaton 1456 Melting Wall Clock
Another unique looking melting clock which would also be great as a present as well as decor for anywhere you deem fit. Moreover, you can also personalize a line of text to be engraved within the clock. The clock comes with the following dimensions 45×31 cm / 17×12 in and needs a single AA Battery to work which doesn’t come included with the product. The clock is available at a price of $99 as of now
After this painting ” Persistence Of Memory “, Dali went on to make many other paintings which became quite popular at the time and are even looked at with amazement today. Let’s take a look at them for a bit now
The Burning Giraffe
Spanish Title: Jirafa en llamas
Year: 1937
Tuna Fishing
Spanish Title: La Pesca del Atún
Year: 1966 – 1967
The Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee
Spanish Title: Sueño causado por el vuelo de una abeja alrededor de una granada un segundo antes de despertar
Year: 1944
Galatea Of The Spheres
Spanish Name: Galatea de las esferas
Year: 1952
Metamorphosis Of Narcissus
Spanish Name: “La metamorfosis de Narciso“
Made In The Year: 1937
Christ Of Saint John Of The Cross
Spanish Name: “Cristo de San Juan de la Cruz“
Year: 1951
The Great Masturbator
Spanish Name: El gran masturbador
Year: 1929
Soft Construction With Boiled Beans
Spanish Name: Construcción blanda con judías hervidas (Premonición de la Guerra Civil)
Year: 1936
Swans Reflecting Elephants
Spanish Name: Cisnes que se reflejan como elefantes
Year: 1937
Hopefully, this article was helpful in providing you some good knowledge about Salvor Dali clocks and what they mean. If you have any clock-related questions, feel free to use the comment section below. And if you want to know why clocks don’t appear in dreams, we have a great article on just that so do give it a click if you are interested “Why don’t clocks appear in dreams? Clocks and dreams!“. Here is also a link about the history of clocks if you want to give that a look “History of timekeeping devices“