Hello, Dali

The Persistence of Memory (1931)

     Salvador Dali was the most famous of the surrealist painters. People often asked him the real meaning behind his art.
     «How do you expect to understand my paintings when I don't understand any of them myself?» he would answer. Because Dali «was a surrealist, he didn't believe that a work of art should be easily understood. In his most famous painting, The Persistence of Memory, Dali uses symbols and shapes to make the painting's viewer feel a certain mood.
   Because Dali trusted his dreams more than the objects he saw around him, his paintings are filled with symbols from his dreams. For example, in Persistence of Memory, ants might simbolize his fear of insects, and the closed eyelid on the ground could simbolize dreaming, one of the most important sources of ideas for surrealists.
LEONARD, Jennifer - "Dreamning with the surrealists", in Highlights for children (1994).