«Brief aan papa»: het portret getekend door zijn kinderen

Born in Ninove on 30 January 1943, Mon De Rijck led an unconventional life, between his barge – home and studio sailing the canals of Belgium, from the Zennegat to Anderlecht, Aalst, Tubize and Brussels –, his house on rue Gaucheret in Brussels (built, according to him, by Alphonse Balat), Italy at Ortonovo facing Carrara, and the shores of Blankenberge.

A free spirit brimming with ideas, he fought for art and its democratisation: Mécénat Démocratique in 1970 (joined by 500 artists), then, with his filmmaker friend Pierre Levie, the "artwork lending" scheme at Château Malou, the Truc-Troc, the Art-Pool foundation, and finally the "Tabula-rasa" exhibition, where he decided to give away all his works through an ingenious raffle. He also taught art to underprivileged people at the Lovenjoel psychiatric centre.

He pursued several trades at once: founder – he cast a thumb by César and sculptures by Georges Minne, supported by his patron Marcel Boulanger –, silkscreen printer for many artists (Camille de Taeye, Delcol, Chantal Declève, …), sculptor in clay, stone and metals, draughtsman, and also a poet and writer of thoughts, including "Quelques petites pensées pour mes petits pourceaux", dedicated to his children.

Father of nine children, he would sometimes turn the barge into an exhibition gallery, accompanied by the flute of his friend Marc Grauwels. His lungs, damaged by foundry work, marble dust and tobacco, failed him on 28 July 2021. In the days after his death, his children composed this letter to "speak with one voice": a family archive document from which the biographical elements on this page are drawn.

Bronnen:« Lettre à papa », août 2021 - archives familiales (versions revues par Camille, Maud et Joan)