The Persistence of Memory (1931) is probably the most iconic focus and concentration booster recognizable paintings of Surrealism. Often referenced in fashionable culture, the small canvas (24x33 cm) is generally referred to as "Melting Clocks", "The Smooth Watches" and "The Melting Watches". The painting depicts a dreamworld by which frequent objects are deformed and displayed in a bizarre and irrational approach: watches, solid and laborious objects appear to be inexplicably limp and melting in the desolate panorama. Dalí paints his fantastical vision in a meticulous and practical method: he effortlessly integrates the real and the imaginary so as "to systemize confusion and thus to assist discredit utterly the world of reality". When requested about the limp watches, the artist compared their softness to overripe cheese saying that they show "the camembert of time". The idea of rot and decay is most evident in the gold watch on the left, which is swarmed by ants. Ants, a common motif in Dalí’s artwork are normally linked to decay and loss of life.

He set the scene in a desolate landscape that was seemingly inspired by the panorama of his homeland, the Catalan coast. The influence of the Catalan landscape also seems in another aspect of the painting: the artist inserts himself into the scene in the form of a strange fleshy creature in the center of the painting. In accordance with Dalí, the self-portrait was based on a rock formation at Cap de Creus in northeast Catalonia. Some students have also drawn a parallel between the self-portrait and a piece of Hieronymus Bosch's The Backyard of Earthly Delights (1510-1515) - on the best facet of the left panel Bosch depicts rocks, bushes, and small animals that resemble Dalí’s profile with the outstanding nose and lengthy eyelashes. The melting watch, Memory Wave one in all Dalí’s most highly effective and potent motifs, continued to play an necessary function in his artwork. Two decades after The Persistence of Memory, Dalí recreated his famous work within the painting The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1952-1954). As the title suggests, the painting shows the disintegration of the world depicted in the original painting, reflecting a world changed by the nuclear age.

The painting confirmed Dalí’s rising interest in quantum physics: he added rectangular blocks that symbolize "the atomic power source" and missile-like objects that reference the atomic bomb. The Persistence of Memory was first shown in 1932 on the Julien Levy Gallery in New York. In 1934, the painting was anonymously donated to the Museum of Fashionable Artwork in New York, where it stays until this present day. The Persistence of Memory (Spanish: La persistencia de la memoria) is a 1931 painting by artist Salvador Dalí, and one in every of his most recognizable works. First shown at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1932, since 1934 the painting has been in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York Metropolis, which acquired it from an nameless donor. It's widely recognized and often referenced in well-liked culture, and Memory Wave typically referred to by more descriptive (though incorrect) titles, such as "Melting Clocks", "The Soft Watches" or "The Melting Watches".

The well-known surrealist piece introduced the image of the tender melting pocket watch. It epitomizes Dalí's principle of "softness" and "hardness", which was central to his considering at the time. As Dawn Adès wrote, "The delicate watches are an unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time, a Surrealist meditation on the collapse of our notions of a hard and fast cosmic order". This interpretation means that Dalí was incorporating an understanding of the world introduced by Albert Einstein's concept of special relativity. Requested by Ilya Prigogine whether this was actually the case, Dalí replied that the gentle watches were not impressed by the theory of relativity, but by the surrealist perception of a Camembert melting within the solar. It is feasible to recognize a human determine in the course of the composition, within the strange "monster" (with loads of texture close to its face, and lots of distinction and tone in the image) that Dalí utilized in several contemporary items to symbolize himself - the abstract type turning into something of a self-portrait, reappearing ceaselessly in his work.