The Hungarian National Gallery, the country’s largest public collection documenting the birth and evolution of Hungarian fine art, rolls into 2026 with packed halls, bold shows, and programs for every age and language. Alongside permanent and temporary exhibitions, visitors can join guided tours in Hungarian and other languages, themed walks, family days, festivals, and concerts. Kids get creative clubs, art education workshops, and summer camps, too. Center stage this winter: the 140th anniversary celebration of Lajos Tihanyi, a defining force of Hungarian modernism and the Nyolcak (The Eight).
Spotlight: Tihanyi 140
The blockbuster exhibition Lázadó formák, merész színek – Tihanyi Lajos művészete (Rebellious Forms, Bold Colors – The Art of Lajos Tihanyi) anchors January with his most important paintings, graphics, and personal objects. Losing his hearing as a child, Tihanyi created color and shape from silence and forged a fiercely individual visual language without academic training. That language made him one of the most original figures in 20th-century Hungarian painting and a pillar of the Nyolcak. Multiple guided visits let audiences dive deeper into his evolution and experiments.
Guided Tours, Many Voices
On January 16, art historian Gergely Barki leads The Man Behind the Palette, a fresh take inside Tihanyi 140. The same day, an Italian-language tour, Visita guidata in italiano, sweeps through the Gallery’s greatest Hungarian masterpieces from the Middle Ages to today, with a special focus on the 19th and 20th centuries—and a wink that you might even spot Dante among the canvases. January 17 brings Betonba hímezve, writer and art historian Rita Halász’s subjective guided tour, which returns on January 31 with new angles.
Abstract Adventures
January 17’s Alkoss! – Absztrakt élményfestés (Create! – Abstract Experience Painting) opens the doors to abstraction. After a gallery walk, participants paint their own striking abstract works inspired by giants like Sean Scully, Judit Reigl, and Simon Hantaï. The program embraces everything from geometric rigor to freewheeling brushwork.
The Body, Then and Now
January 18 features Aktszobrok a századfordulóról (Nude Sculptures from the Turn of the Century). The nude—one of art’s oldest subjects—shifts with every era’s ideals, and the Gallery’s renewed 19th–20th-century display reveals how artists shaped the human form anew. A second look comes February 5 with Mama, nézd! – A test szépsége (Mom, Look! – The Beauty of the Body), a guided program highlighting the same exhibition.
Family, Kids, and Tiny Dancers
The Gallery fills January with kid-forward workshops. Színezd újra! – múzeumi műhely gyerekeknek (Recolor It! – Kids’ Museum Workshop) on January 21 and 28 invites junior detectives to uncover Tihanyi’s secrets: searching dozens of his works for hidden clues, then “forging” paintings, crafting identikit portraits, and playing with photo manipulation. On January 24, Kaland a Galériában – Különös arcok (Adventure in the Gallery – Strange Faces) runs two age-split tours: 10:30–11:15 for ages 6–9, and 11:30–12:15 for ages 10–13. January 27’s Tipegők – Hópihe tánc (Toddlers – Snowflake Dance) turns winter into music and movement, exploring snowy landscapes, singing, storytelling, and dancing with snowflakes.
Accessibility and New Styles
January 25 offers an accessible guided tour of Tihanyi’s exhibition with sign language interpretation. On January 21, Szellemi fitnesz – Új év, új stílus (Mental Fitness – New Year, New Style) spotlights how artists reinvent themselves, from János Vaszary to József Rippl-Rónai and Aurél Bernáth. After the gallery walk, participants try out one of Rippl-Rónai’s styles in the studio.
Online and On-Site Deep Dives
Can’t make it to Buda? January 22 brings an online guided tour through Tihanyi 140 to mark the Day of Hungarian Culture. On January 24, Gergely Barki lectures on Kettő vagy egy sem. Duplázások és hiátusok Tihanyi Lajos életművében (Two or None: Doublings and Gaps in Tihanyi’s Oeuvre), tracing the repetitions, disappearances, and surprises across his career. January 29’s Mama, nézd! – A csend beszél (Mom, Look! – Silence Speaks) explores how Tihanyi’s childhood illness and deaf-mutism shaped a singular artistic path.
The Nyolcak: A Short, Loud Revolution
February 1 zeroes in on the Nyolcak with a dedicated guided tour. First known as the Keresők (The Seekers), they worked together only from 1909 to 1912 and staged three group shows—but like a scientific and technological revolution, their shockwave shook Hungarian culture and visual art profoundly. The Gallery links this seismic moment directly to Tihanyi’s restless search for form and color.
Personalities, Cities, Influences
The Tihanyi story is also a travelogue and a study in charisma. On February 5, Tihanyi Lajos, a nyughatatlan sármőr (Lajos Tihanyi, the Restless Charmer) pairs arts manager Nóra Winkler with art historian Tünde Topor for a joint tour. The next day, February 6, writer and art historian Rita Halász leads Budapest–Berlin–Paris. Tihanyi Lajos útja az absztrakcióig (Budapest–Berlin–Paris: Lajos Tihanyi’s Road to Abstraction), tracing how café culture around 1900, Berlin’s avant-garde, and Parisian modernism shaped his increasingly abstract style.
Dates to Bookmark
– January 16: Barki’s Tihanyi tour; Italian guided highlights tour
– January 17: Halász’s subjective tour; Create! – Abstract painting; Tihanyi guided tour
– January 18: Nude sculptures; Tihanyi guided tour
– January 21: Recolor It! kids’ workshop; Mental Fitness studio session
– January 22: Online Tihanyi tour
– January 23, 25, 29, 31: Tihanyi guided tours (Jan 25 with sign language)
– January 24: Barki lecture; Adventure in the Gallery for kids
– January 27: Toddlers’ Snowflake Dance
– January 28: Recolor It! kids’ workshop
– January 29: Silence Speaks family program
– January 31: Halász’s subjective tour
– February 1: The Nyolcak tour
– February 5: The Beauty of the Body; The Restless Charmer tour
– February 6: Budapest–Berlin–Paris with Rita Halász
If you’re in Budapest, the National Gallery’s winter calendar is a full-spectrum immersion: history and experimentation, intimacy and spectacle, kids peering at clues, adults chasing style shifts, and Tihanyi’s voice rising vividly from silence.
