The launch of Petronėlė Gerlikienė’s website
Petronėlė Gerlikienė, Vilnius, 1978.
“WWII began and things began to fall apart in Petronėlė’s life. In 1943, on a freezing cold day, the Germans forced Pranciškus Gerlikas, who was ill with flu at the time, to cut wood 40 kilometers away from his home. As a result, he got acute consumption. They took him to see different doctors. Once, they left Pranelis with a hired girl. She was too busy with the menial worker to notice that the child had crawled towards the doghouse. On their arrival, the parents found their baby in a pool of blood, so they rushed to the medical corps. This only worsened the elder Gerlikas’ condition and soon he died. When the Cossacks came, pregnant Petronėlė lost her third baby. The tiny horses of the Russian Cossacks nibbled up all the apple trees, and the soldiers devastated the farm. In the end, Petronėlė and her son remained the poorest people in the village. Their dollar account in Kaunas Bank had been confiscated during the war. Later, all their property was nationalized and given to the collective farm. Pranelis was friends with the son of the brother of some important apparachik[1] and because of that they were able to find out when deportations to Siberia would take place. They stashed away all their American things and they stopped sleeping at home. As soon as they saw car lights, they would run to the fields, fall to the ground, and lie in wait for them to leave. That way they survived.
On waking up at night, Petronėlė often saw the apparition of her late husband standing in the doorway. He was wearing the black suit he had been buried in and looking at her. His look was troubled; it seemed to her that he was protecting his family.
A few years later, Petronėlė remarried…”
[1] apparachik – Party official.
Excerpts from the book
“PETRONĖLĖ GERLIKIENĖ. TAPESTRIES. PAINTING”. LTS, 2005.
Biography, album.
Compilers: Jurgita Gerlikaitė & Darijus Gerlikas. Text: Jurgita Gerlikaitė. Hardcover, in English and Lithuanian, 26,7 x 22 cm, 156 p.: illustr. – ISBN 9986-9189-6-0
Available for purchase as hard copy and e-book. Please contact me for more information.
Petronėlė Gerlikienė. A Mother. 1978. Cb., temp. 105×85. MO Museum.
"I painted a mother and her children, but it’s me, Jurgita and Darijus, and the birds. They are guardians. The heart of a woman is always bigger, thus the bird is resting its head on her chest. A good garment must have many buttons."
For more information, artwork and equiries, please visit the page www.gerlikiene.com
