Salvador Dalí's surrealist masterpiece The Persistence of Memory (1931) showcases one of the artist's most iconic motifs: melting clocks. On permanent display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the hallucinatory painting features the limp clocks draped across branches, furniture, and even a sleeping human face.

Why did Dali paint melting clocks?

Some art history scholars believe that Dali's melting clocks may symbolize Albert Einstein's groundbreaking Theory of Relativity, a new and revolutionary idea back in the 1930s. ... In The Persistence of Memory, Dali's clocks might be melting away because they are outmoded and losing power over the world around them.

Who is famous for melting clocks?

Dalí Melting Clocks

The famous melting clocks represent the omnipresence of time, and identify its mastery over human beings. It is said that his inspiration for the soft watch came from the surreal way that Dalí saw a piece of runny Camembert cheese melting in the sun.