Christ of Saint John of the Cross
1951 · Oil on canvas · 205 × 116 cm
The Elephants
1948 · Oil on canvas · 49 × 60 cm
The Burning Giraffe
1937 · Oil on panel · 35 × 27 cm
Swans Reflecting Elephants
1937 · Oil on canvas · 51 × 77 cm
The Persistence of Memory
1931 · Oil on canvas · 24 × 33 cm
Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) was a Spanish Surrealist artist celebrated for his extraordinary technical skill and the bizarre, dreamlike imagery in his work. He became one of the leading figures of the Surrealist movement and a major cultural icon of the 20th century, known for his flamboyant personality and iconic upturned mustache as well as his art.
His most iconic works include The Persistence of Memory (1931) with its famous melting clocks, Swans Reflecting Elephants (1937), The Burning Giraffe (1937), The Elephants (1948), and Christ of Saint John of the Cross (1951). The Persistence of Memory is housed at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.
The melting clocks in The Persistence of Memory (1931) are widely interpreted as a meditation on the fluidity and irrelevance of time in the subconscious mind. Dalí himself described them as inspired by the sight of melting Camembert cheese. The soft watches symbolize the distortion of rigid concepts like time when viewed through the lens of dreams.
Dalí died on January 23, 1989, at the age of 84, in his hometown of Figueres, Spain. The cause of death was cardiac arrest brought on by respiratory failure and pneumonia. He is buried in the crypt beneath his own Theatre-Museum in Figueres.
The Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, Spain, is the largest surrealistic object in the world. Designed by Dalí himself on the site of the old municipal theatre, it opened in 1974 and houses the single largest collection of his works. Dalí is buried in a crypt beneath the museum.
This page features public domain works by Salvador Dalí and is not managed by the artist.
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