HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY

Jean-Christophe Mončys, Père Ant: 100 memories of my father, Antanas Mončys (Mano tėvas Antas. 100 prisiminimų apie Antaną Mončį), Vilnius: Aukso žuvys, 2022, 340 pp.

On 8 June 2021, the sculptor Antanas Mončys (1921–1993) would have turned one hundred. On this occasion, his son Jean-Christophe takes the opportunity to write down a hundred memories in the form of a tender and intimate conversation with his father, as evidenced by the affectionate names used in the family’s internal communication – Père Ant and Krik – revealed to the reader. Thus, Krik writes a love letter to Père Ant, which becomes more than just one family’s memories, since it is also a testimony of a bygone era, and a biography of Mončys‘s work delineating the contours of its reception. Born in Žemaitija (Samogitia), Mončys fled Lithuania during the war and lived for over forty years in Paris, where his three children were born and grew up, and where he quietly and remotely made his impressive sculptures. This book is unique, perhaps above all because it deconstructs the usual manner of artists’ biographies, written on the occasion of important anniversaries. The reader will not find pathos here, but the light of a son’s love and longing, and the painting of a character in words, with the aim of maintaining authenticity, so beloved by Mončys. The text is curious to read, like flipping through a family photo album; it suddenly catches you by surprise like the most captivating novel would. The son’s recollections are often supplemented by quotations from Antanas Mončys’s own diary. It all seems like a light sketch, but these dotted lines create a memorable portrait of the artist, testifying to the inseparability of creative work from the artist’s life and biography. The book’s textual part is complemented by photographs of Mončys’s most important works and photographed episodes of his personal life. The book is a work of art in its own right – graceful, delicate, full of surprises, much to the credit of the book’s designer Sigutė Chlebinskaitė.

Jean-Christophe Mončys – son of Antanas Mončys. Actor, theatre instructor, teacher of oratorical art. He resides in Paris and describes himself in French as follows: Je suis Lituanien.

Contact for rights: sigita@auksozuvys.lt