Salvador Dali sculpture “Dance of Time” illustrate in three dimensions the cosmology of his thought, who, starting from the 1930s, transferred into art his profound obsession with the concept of space-time and of the relativity of time by mathematicians of physics like Albert Einstein or Minkowski and by philosophers like Henri Bergson or Edmund Husserl.
Dalí wrote: “My work is a reflection, one of the innumerable reflections of what I accomplish, write, think.” It could be added that Dalí’s work also fully reflects his immense cultural background, made up of readings and in-depth studies on the most innumerable and disparate themes.
To illustrate the geometric, physical, philosophical, artistic and symbolic aspects of the “Dance of Time” sculptures, it is necessary to take a “leap” together into the early years of the 20th century, which marked the great rethinking on the concept of space and time in physics terms by Hermann Minkowski and Albert Einstein.
The Physicists
Before Einstein, the universe could be represented by scientists in a three-dimensional Euclidean space and, in the time variable was considered independent of space. Space and time, as defined, were well distinct from each other and considered absolute. Einstein’s “Theory of Relativity” showed instead the indissoluble link between space and time and the loss of their value in absolute terms.
This concept was introduced by Hermann Minkowski, who illustrated the need to create a new mathematical structure, where the variables of space and time are intertwined. Minkowski’s work provided a crucial reinterpretation of Einstein’s special relativity, presenting it in a geometrical form that unified space and time into a single four-dimensional continuum known as “spacetime.” This concept was essential for the further development of Einstein’s theories, including the general theory of relativity. In three-dimensional space, the time variable comes into play and with it the movement and, therefore, the dynamic character of the geometry of space-time.
In the impossibility of graphically illustrating the four-dimensional space, one of the spatial components is eliminated in such a way that the third dimension can represent time. In this way, Minkowski introduced a new concept, and it was possible to describe the motion of the Earth around the Sun and, the trajectory derived from this movement, was called the “line of the universe”.
Through the same method described above, which eliminates one of the three spatial components, and combining them with the time component, it is possible to represent, in a schematic way, the evolution of any event within space-time.
Defined the point-event that represents the present, it is possible to constitute two opposite cones, the first with direction upwards representing the future and the second with direction downwards representing the past. These cones are composed of the set of all the light rays that depart from the point-event (present) and the interior of the cone thus defined, contains all the points of space-time, which can be reached with a speed lower than the speed of light.
In homage to these theories, Salvador Dali in his “Dance of Time” sculpture keeps the wavy hands of the soft watch on the vertical axis, inside Minkowski cones. At first glance, the Dalinian clocks show themselves externally in their deformed nature, caught in the present moment in which they drip and melt. At a deeper level though they recall the new core scientific understanding of time.
This peculiarity of Salvador Dali “Dance of Time” sculptures is common in a few other Dalí soft watches. In our collection for example, also the limited edition sculptures “Woman of Time“, “Persistence of Memory” and “Space Venus” present the hands of the watch pointing toward 6 and 12, placed in the position that allows to ideally unite the past to the future, and illustrate the geometry of the universe and the complexity of space-time as “curved” space.
The Philosophers
Inspired by the new scientific, technical theories in the same period philosophers like Henri Bergson, Alfred North Whitehead or Edmund Husserl started revising the value and nature of time from the humanistic point of view.
Bergson explored the concept of “duration,” emphasizing the continuous and flowing nature of lived experience, contrasting it with the discrete and measurable time of physics. He challenged the idea of time as a purely objective and external reality, highlighting its subjective and qualitative aspects.
His central concept is “duration”. This is his way of describing time as we actually experience it, not as it’s measured by clocks or divided into units. He argued that scientific time is an abstraction, useful for practical purposes but ultimately missing the point about what time feels like. Time is a continuous, indivisible flow of experience. It’s qualitative, meaning it’s about the quality of our experience, not how many units of time have passed.
In this context Salvador Dali´s interpretation of time both in paintings and in sculptures, becomes fluid objects, solid things from our rational world that in our mind represent or measure the rigid and severe time, are transformed in soft or melting animated beings conveying emotions. In the persistence of memory they look tired and bored, representing a slow moving time, in the Three dancing watches they seem happy, dynamic and full of enthusiasm, measuring an enjoyable time that runs quickly, hard to catch.
The Dance
The master of surrealism was fascinated by the art of dance, which took up a significant part in his life and in his vast artistic production, from painting to sculpture, from cinema to theatre. In the bronze sculpture Dance of Time, Salvador Dali represents the watch as literally “dancing”. Unrestrained by the rigid laws of a real and rational watch, time, for Dalí, moves to the rhythm of a perpetual dance, speeding up, slowing down, stretching out, liquefying.
If we think of the relationship between Dalí and dance, a huge number of dancers of the Dalinian universe undoubtedly spring to mind. The young Alice in Wonderland , portrayed in many artworks, like the painting Morphological Echo (1935), the Landscape with a girl skipping rope (1936); or in the 1977 bronze sculpture, in the film Destino is in a perennial dance, born from a bell tower and morphed in flower and birds.
Throughout his life Dalí was engaged several times to design costumes, decor and librettos for theatrical ballets, he did so for the Bacchanale, performed in New York in 1939, for “Labyrinth” in 1941, the Three-cornered hat ballet in 1949 or the ballet “Gala” tribute to his wife, performed in Venice in 1961. In all of these works his surreal style is evident , with amazing incredible results. In most cases the drawing produced have been edited in wonderful limited edition prints.
These works directly bound with ballet performances however are just part of his representations of dance and music. Since his infancy and youth his connection with this form of spectacle has always been strong. In our view one of the nicest and most interesting dance related realizations was in 1958, When Salvador Dalí collaborated with the famous Spanish flamenco dancer, Micaela Flores Amaya (nicknamed La Chunga) dancing barefooted on a blank canvas. During the dance intervals, Dalí painted under the feet of the dancer, transforming the canvas into one of the most unique dance and paintings artworks.
“When I awake, ballet dancers leap in my brain. As I retain the image I sketch them before they run away” said Dalí.
Dalí’s father, Salvador Dalí y Cusí, was a lawyer and notary with a passion for music. He loved the Sardana, a Catalan dance, symbol of Catalan unity and pride, and passed down this interest to his son, who made the dance become a source of inspiration for his art.
Salvador Dali sculpture “Dance of Time”
Mathematics, philosophy and dance coexist in this sculpture: Einstein’s space-time geometry and Bergson´theories are represented as a dance. The Dance of Time appears with a deformed structure, caught in the moment of bending, like an elastic animated object, while the hands of the clock show its mathematical structure that contrasts with the formless and soft one of the image.
“Soft watches are nothing more than paranoiac critical Camembert, soft, extravagant and unique in space and time” said Salvador Dalí, adding: “Ever since the divine beginnings of immortal Greece, the Greeks made out of the anguish of space and time, psychological gods and sublime, tragic agitations of the human soul – the entire mythological anthropomorphism. Carrying on from the Greeks, Dalí is satisfied only when he is creating, out of the anguishes of space, time, and the quantified agitations of the soul, a cheese! And a mystical, divine cheese!”.
In our collection we are lucky to have the three renditions of Salvador Dali “Dance of Time” sculpture. If you want to see or acquire any of them, speak to your favourite gallery and have them contact us, you might have a chance to visit and exhibition near you!
