Pretty in Pink: A Portrait of Queen Olga of Greece at the Benaki Museum by George Manginis

Pretty in Pink: A Portrait of Queen Olga of Greece at the Benaki Museum

Lecture by

George Manginis
Academic Director
Benaki Museum in Athens

Saturday, January 11, 2025
4:00 p.m.
314 Royce Hall, UCLA Campus
Reception to follow

Conversation following the lecture with Sharon Gerstel, Director, UCLA Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture.

RSVP link: To be provided

On the third floor of the Benaki Museum in central Athens hangs a portrait of Queen Olga, the consort of Greece’s second king, painted a few years after her wedding to George I. In March 2021, the portrait, attributed to an unknown artist, was included in the Museum’s anniversary exhibition celebrating the bicentennial of the Greek Revolution. This lecture will unfold the story of this radiant but enigmatic painting, from its creation to its bequest to the Museum, offering surprising insights into 19^th– and 20^th– century Greek and European history.

George Manginis is the Academic Director of the Benaki Museum in Athens. He has taught and researched Cypriot prehistory, Islamic art and architecture, Sinai studies, Chinese ceramics, European decorative arts and the Greek and Armenian diasporas. In 2016 he published Mount Sinai: A History of Travellers and Pilgrims and China Rediscovered: The Benaki Museum Collection of Chinese Ceramics, followed by Ceramics from Korea at the Benaki Museum: The George Eumorfopoulos Collection and Director’s Choice: Benaki Museum in 2021, and Imperial China in 2023.

This event is held under the auspices of the Consulate General of Greece in Los Angeles and made possible thanks to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).

Gefyra (Bridge) is a collaborative program established by the UCLA SNF Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture and the SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University with support from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). Gefyra’s mission is to connect students, faculty, and communities along the West Coast of North America with Greek scholars, artists, and other creators, so that they can together explore expansive and imaginative approaches to Greek culture and knowledge production. The program additionally supports academic conferences and cultural projects that bridge the West Coast and Greece.