The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali (1931)
This Surrealist piece, famous for its melting pocket watches in a desolate landscape, was painted by Dali when he was 27 years old. The story goes that the idea came to him one night after dinner while he was staring at a piece of melting camembert cheese.
The soft drooping texture symbolizes the fluidity of times, the subjectivity of memory and the inevitability of decay. It became one of the most recognized paintings of the Surrealist movement, capturing the anxieties of the world between WWI and WWII.
It's a small painting, just 9 ½ by 13 but its influence on modern art has been huge. It's housed at the Museum of lModern Art (MOMA) in New York City.
I think it captures a bit of the anxious mood in the world today. How would you paint an anxious and unstable period in time?