PORTRAIT OF JIM AMARAL AS AN ARCHEOLOGIST   ’  , especially those from the s, which constitute the essence of the body of work un- der consideration here, one cannot help being struck by the number of references to Greek mythology. It would seem that the artist’s closest companions are Hesiod or Ovid and that he is in constant contact with Orpheus, Narcissus and Tiresias. Such familiarity with the founding myths of Western culture is rare in recent times: Freud, of course, made the figure of Oedipus familiar and Cocteau, in his theater as well as in his films, provided contemporary versions of Orpheus. Both those writ- ers may well have perceived in the ancient heroes an echo of situations they felt they were facing themselves. But ever since Surrealism, artists, especially those in the visual arts, seemed to have lost interest in viewing contemporary life through a Greek mirror. Jim Amaral’s oeuvre reconnects with that brilliant past. In fact, it would appear impossible to approach his art without invoking the mythology to which the titles of his works continually allude. ere is, in effect, a narrative reservoir that the painter successfully brings to bear in his work by drawing on the tales of Hesiod, Homer or Ovid. e stories of gods and heroes endow the painter’s images with a narrative breadth that the images alone would not necessarily in- voke. Faced solely with the images, without the support of a text that surrounds them and develops their meaning, the spectator would be like a tourist on the island of Delos standing before a giant field of resolutely silent ruins. Overwhelmed by the vision of those elements, the deeper meaning of the spectacle would remain impenetrable. Without the help of architects to restore the ruins and raise their fall- en columns by means of anastylosis, we find ourselves facing the past like eseus without the aid of Ariadne’s thread. But what applies to architecture is no less true with respect to us as individuals before the accumulations constituted by past experiences, forgotten or buried memories and the rich tribulations we have confronted. e present is rightly represented visually as an accretion of superimposed layers that contain the actions that have constructed us. What rises to the W O R L D I I I Portrait of JimAmaral as an Archeologist B Y J A C Q U E S L E E N H A R D T Previous page and above - . Jim in his workshop, €‚ƒ. . D . Tiresias № , €‚…. ‚†×†† cm, pencil and oil on canvas.