A new year, a fresh wave of color at the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest. The country’s largest public collection tracing the rise of Hungarian fine art rolls out a lively mix of permanent and temporary exhibitions, guided tours in multiple languages, themed programs, family days, festivals, concerts, creative workshops for kids, and even summer camps. January and February are all about playful discovery for toddlers, detective work for young creators, and a bold deep dive into the life and legacy of avant‑garde painter Lajos Tihanyi on the 140th anniversary of his birth.
Toddlers step into winter magic
January 27: Tipegők – Hópihe tánc (Toddlers – Snowflake Dance) invites the smallest visitors to bundle up for a wintry adventure through snow‑kissed forests and shimmering colors. Expect songs, stories, dance, and a flurry of imagination in the galleries. Budapest.
Kids become art detectives
January 28: Színezd újra! (Recolor It!) – a museum workshop for kids – turns the Gallery into a mystery zone. Young sleuths track the secrets of Lajos Tihanyi by combing through dozens of his works, hunting for hidden details, and piecing together a grand visual riddle. The investigation doubles as hands‑on creation: playful “forgeries,” phantom portraits, and photo‑modding experiments are all on the case. Budapest.
Silence that speaks
January 29: Mama, nézd! – A csend beszél (Mama, Look! – Silence Speaks) looks at how Tihanyi’s childhood deafness shaped his art and turned a perceived setback into a daring advantage. The session explores how silence forged his singular language of color and form. Budapest.
Rebel forms, bold colors
January 29 and again January 31, February 7, February 8, February 11, February 12: Lázadó formák, merész színek – Tihanyi Lajos művészete (Rebel Forms, Bold Colors – The Art of Lajos Tihanyi) celebrates his 140th with a sweeping career exhibition. Paintings, graphics, and personal objects chart how a self‑taught artist, who lost his hearing as a child, created a striking visual vocabulary and became a key figure of the Nyolcak (The Eight) group and 20th‑century Hungarian painting. Guided tours add context and close‑up insights. Budapest.
“Phenomenon: that was Tihanyi”
January 30: Art historian Blanka Bán leads a tour answering prickly questions. What did Tihanyi’s parents envision for him? Why did he paint some canvases on both sides? How did contemporaries describe his personality, and how did he capture theirs on canvas? Trace his arc from Fauvist color to full abstraction. Budapest.
Writer-led perspectives
January 31: Betonba hímezve (Embroidered in Concrete) – an author’s‑eye tour by writer and art historian Rita Halász – brings an intimate, subjective reading to Tihanyi’s work. Budapest.
Sunday under the dome
February 1: Vasárnapi kóruskoncert (Sunday Choral Concert) fills the first‑floor dome hall with the Albert Schweitzer Chamber Choir and Orchestra for a choral concert that pairs beautifully with a museum day. Budapest.
The Eight shake up the scene
February 1: Nyolcak (The Eight) – a scheduled guided tour – peels back the story of the group initially known as the Keresők (Seekers). Active for only three years, 1909–1912, and exhibiting together just three times, their shockwave rattled Hungarian cultural and visual life like a scientific revolution. Budapest.
Stream it from home
February 3: Online guided tour of the Tihanyi exhibition delivers the experience to your sofa. Budapest.
Time travel for kids
February 4 and February 11: Színezd újra! (Recolor It!) returns with a history‑flavored workshop. How did people live long ago? Paintings, genre scenes, portraits, and old photos open windows onto daily life—objects used, clothes worn, games played, dreams cherished. Kids draw, paint, make comics, and spin their own stories from what they see. Budapest.
The restless charmer
February 5: Tihanyi Lajos, a nyughatatlan sármőr (Lajos Tihanyi, the Restless Charmer) is a joint tour by art manager Nóra Winkler and art historian Tünde Topor, unwrapping the artist’s style and persona. Also on February 5: Mama, nézd! – A test szépsége (Mama, Look! – The Beauty of the Body) explores how the human body—especially the nude—mirrors each era’s ideals, highlighting the refreshed Aktszobrok a századfordulóról (Nude Sculptures from the Turn of the Century) display. Budapest.
Budapest–Berlin–Paris
February 6: Writer and art historian Rita Halász traces Tihanyi’s road to abstraction. From café culture at the turn of the century to the Berlin avant‑garde and Parisian modernism, follow his journey from figurative compositions to a pure language of color and form. Budapest.
Create with your body
February 7: Alkoss! – Meztelen valóság (Create! – Naked Reality) surveys portrayals of the body from the 19th century to today, then flips the script: participants use their own bodies as subject and tool to make striking body prints. Also February 7: a guided tour, A csend képei. Fényes Adolf (1867–1945) (Images of Silence: Adolf Fényes, 1867–1945), pairs the memorial exhibition with connected works from the permanent collection. Budapest.
Français, s’il vous plaît
February 8: Budapest‑Berlin‑Paris. L’art de Lajos Tihanyi offers a French‑language tour of the exhibition. Budapest.
From crypt to cupola
February 8: Épületséta – Kriptától a kupoláig (Building Tour – From Crypt to Cupola) reveals the secrets of the former royal palace: the Habsburg Palatine Crypt, the panoramic dome, and other architectural gems, along with the Gallery’s history and collections. Budapest.
Online with Adolf Fényes
February 10: Online guided tour of the Adolf Fényes exhibition brings the artist’s muted, contemplative world to screens at home. Budapest.
Each date brings a new angle—snowy songs for toddlers, puzzle‑solving workshops for kids, and a rich constellation of tours that map Tihanyi’s leap from silence to blazing color. Budapest’s Hungarian National Gallery starts 2026 with curiosity, craft, and a fearless look at how art reinvents itself.
