A giant of Hungarian visual culture, the Hungarian National Gallery is rolling into 2026 with a full calendar: major exhibitions, curator-led and sign-language tours, themed workshops, family days, festivals, talks, and concerts. Kids get plenty too, from creative clubs and art education sessions to summer camps. This winter’s headliner is a sweeping tribute to Lajos Tihanyi, marking 140 years since his birth—surrounded by programs that explore shifts in style, abstract journeys, and the timeless human figure.
New Year, New Styles
January 21 takes a playful turn with Intellectual Fitness – New Year, New Style, a gallery walk and studio session zeroing in on artists who reinvented themselves—think János Vaszary, József Rippl-Rónai, and Aurél Bernáth. The tour compares multiple stylistic phases that can make one artist look like many, then shifts to hands-on creation, trying out one of Rippl-Rónai’s styles in the workshop. Location: Budapest.
Color It Again! Detective Work for Kids
Also on January 21 and again on January 28, Color It Again! brings kids into a mystery-laced museum adventure. The gallery’s halls hide clues about Lajos Tihanyi. Young sleuths study dozens of works, spot tucked-away details, and piece together the riddle. Investigation meets creation as kids forge playful “forgeries,” build composite sketches, and experiment with photo edits. Location: Budapest.
See the Tihanyi Show From Home
On January 22, enjoy an online guided tour of the Tihanyi exhibition for Hungarian Culture Day. It’s a streamed look into his painting, accessible from the couch. Location: Budapest.
Rebel Forms, Bold Colors: The Tihanyi Retrospective
On January 23, 29, 31, February 7, and 8, the major Tihanyi exhibition unfolds across galleries, showcasing his key paintings, graphics, and personal objects. Losing his hearing in childhood, Tihanyi carved color and form from silence, crafting a singular voice without academic training. His visual language made him a defining member of The Eight (Nyolcak) and one of the most original figures of 20th-century Hungarian painting. Guided tours delve into how he turned constraints into breakthroughs. Location: Budapest.
Family Tours and Fresh Eyes
January 24’s Adventure in the Gallery – Curious Faces offers age-tailored guided tours: 10:30–11:15 for ages 6–9 and 11:30–12:15 for ages 10–13. The same day, art historian Gergely Barki delivers a talk, Two or None: Doublings and Hiatuses in Lajos Tihanyi’s Oeuvre, probing gaps and repetitions in the artist’s body of work. Location: Budapest.
Accessible Art
On January 25, the Tihanyi exhibition features a guided tour with sign-language interpretation, focusing on his bold forms, color harmonies, and personal journey. Location: Budapest.
Toddler Magic: Snowflake Dance
January 27’s Toddlers – Snowflake Dance invites the smallest visitors into a winter wonderland. It’s about soft mittens, warm snow boots, and the hush of a snow-covered forest—mixed with singing, storytelling, and dancing with snowflakes. Location: Budapest.
“Mama, Look!” Programs
Two family-friendly tours zoom in on big themes. On January 29, Mama, Look! – The Silence Speaks explores how Tihanyi’s childhood illness and resulting deafness shaped an unmistakable artistic identity. On February 5, Mama, Look! – The Beauty of the Body turns to the nude and how ideals of the human form shift across eras, capped with a visit to the refreshed Nude Sculptures from the Turn of the Century (Aktszobrok a századfordulóról) display. Location: Budapest.
Writers, Curators, and Conversations
January 31 brings Embroidered into Concrete—A Subjective Tour by writer and art historian Rita Halász. On February 6, Halász returns for Budapest–Berlin–Paris: Lajos Tihanyi’s Road to Abstraction, tracing how café culture, the Berlin avant-garde, and Parisian modernism ushered Tihanyi from figuration to the autonomous language of pure color and form. Location: Budapest.
The Eight Step Forward
February 1’s scheduled tour, The Eight, uses Tihanyi’s retrospective as a springboard to explore the short-lived but seismic group. Originally debuting as the Seekers (Keresők), they worked together from 1909 to 1912, held three joint shows, and jolted Hungary’s cultural life like a scientific and technological revolution. Location: Budapest.
Personalities and Portraits
February 5’s guided tour, Lajos Tihanyi, the Restless Charmer, is led by art manager Nóra Winkler and art historian Tünde Topor. It unpacks the artist’s charisma alongside his relentless stylistic evolution. Location: Budapest.
Create and Look Closer
February 7 splits into two deep dives. Create! – Naked Reality explores the human body across centuries, from the 19th century to contemporary art. After the gallery walk, visitors use their own bodies as both subject and tool, making body prints. That same day, a guided tour spotlights The Pictures of Silence: Adolf Fényes (A csend képei. Fényes Adolf) memorial exhibition and related works from the permanent collection, connecting quietude, surface, and light. Location: Budapest.
From Crypt to Dome
On February 8, Building Tour – From Crypt to Dome opens the former royal palace’s hidden corners. Discover the gallery’s history and collections while visiting the Habsburg Palatine Crypt, the panoramic dome, and other architectural gems normally left off a casual visit. Location: Budapest.
Carnival Time for Toddlers
February 10’s Toddlers – Venetian Carnival whisks families to Italy’s city of masks. Expect elegant parades, merry-go-round moments, dance, and playful role changes—an immersive taste of Venice’s most festive season. Location: Budapest.
