Salvador Dali (1904-89) Spain

Old Age, Adolescence, Infancy (The Three Ages)

1940 Oil on Canvas 49.8x 65 cm Salvador Dali Museum, St.

Petersburg, Florida, USA / © DACS / The Bridgeman Art

Library

Surrealism (a movement in art) Surrealists paintings were generally

based on dreams. Their paintings were filled with familiar objects which were painted to look strange or mysterious. They hoped their odd paintings would make people look at things in a different way and change the way they felt about things. They thought that their paintings might stir up feelings in the back of peoples minds.

"Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing." Salvador Dali

“The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad.”

The Persistence of Memory, 1931, oil on canvas, 24 X 33 cm (Museum of Modern art NYC)

The general interpretation of the work is that the soft watches are a rejection of the assumption that time is rigid or deterministic. This idea is supported by other images in the work, such as the wide expanding landscape, and the other limp watches, shown being devoured by insects.[24]

Salvador Dali