Salvador Dalí was one of the prolific painters of his time, and he is perhaps best remembered for his painting "The Persistence of Memory" which shows a collection of melting clocks. It is considered to be one of the best examples of Surrealism.
Dalí once stated of the genre: "Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision."
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The artist was one of the surrealist painters who took his work to new extremes, often undergoing high pressure, self-induced paranoia. He also relied on hallucinations to make this form of his artwork. His "hand-painted dream photographs" were heavily reliant on this type of self-made mayhem he subjected himself to frequently.
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The painting is most memorable for it's melting clocks, often called "soft watches" by surrealist critics. In the background, audiences can also see a small self-portrait of the artist. Dalí had always been unusual in the portrayals of himself, often giving himself an image that was unlike a human face. He wanted his portrait to be as unreal as the works he created.