You’ve probably seen it in one form or the other – Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory features the striking imagery of pocketwatches melting in the landscape, often on a tree branch. Over 250 pieces from this icon of surrealist art is on display at the ArtScience Museum, and here’s a post about Chopinand’s visit to the exhibition.

Chopinand reflects on Dali the surrealist and his art in the larger cultural context:

Dali joined the surrealist movement in the early 1920s where this movement challenges the established norms of art such as real objects.

Drawing parallels with music, the great composers of the twentieth century also sought to break away from “tradition” such as the sonata form where much of the great classical music genre was composed in a structured manner.

The sonata form consists of three principal sections. An exposition at the beginning is where the main theme of the music is introduced for the first time. The development section then explores the thematic motives with different musical techniques to provide contrast, colour and excitement. Such techniques include variations in tempo, modulation to different keys, using embellishments, syncopation or breaking up the motives into smaller themes which are still recognisable to the listener but takes a slightly different form. The recapitulation reintroduces the main theme usually in its original form to reinforce the piece of music in its entirety.

Although it is the most important principle form of music in the classical period where much of Mozart and Haydn’s symphonies were predicated upon, the rigidity of the sonata form did not survive the radical change and ideologies of the twentieth century where composers sought to create new sounds using new techniques and disregarded established rules and norms.

Chopinand’s post explores Dali: Mind of a Genius with selections from the exhibition, coupled with reflections on Dali’s art and life. Dali: Mind of a Genius is on at the ArtScience Museum until 30 October. For more details, click here.