A blockbuster season is rolling into the Hungarian National Gallery, the country’s largest public collection documenting the rise and evolution of Hungarian fine art. Expect permanent and temporary exhibitions, guided tours in multiple languages, themed programs, family days, festivals, concerts—and, for kids, creative clubs, art education workshops, and summer camps. The headline story: a sweeping celebration of Lajos Tihanyi on the 140th anniversary of his birth, with events running through late January and into February across Budapest.
Winter play for toddlers
January 27 opens with Toddlers – Snowflake Dance, a cozy, hands-on winter romp. Kids bundle up in imaginary mittens and snow boots to explore how forests turn white, what colors hide in a snowy landscape, and how songs, stories, and dance swirl together with snowflakes. It’s all about gentle movement, color discovery, and shared joy.
Kids become art detectives
On January 28, the Recolor It! museum workshop invites children into a mystery-laced adventure through the galleries, where the walls whisper clues and young sleuths hunt for the secrets of Lajos Tihanyi. They’ll scrutinize dozens of works, spot hidden details, and—if they’re sharp—solve the grand puzzle. Creation is baked into the casework: kids “forge” paintings, sketch composite faces, and experiment with photo manipulation to piece together a phantom portrait. The theme returns on February 4 and February 11 with time-travel twists through daily life in earlier eras, drawing on paintings, genre scenes, portraits, and old photos. Inspired by what they see, kids draw, paint, craft comics, and invent their own stories.
Silence speaks volumes
January 29 brings Mama, Look! – The Silence Speaks, a family-friendly look at how Tihanyi’s childhood deafness didn’t confine him—it sharpened his voice in paint. The session explores how the loss of hearing became a wellspring for a singular visual language that made him one of the most original artists of the Hungarian avant-garde.
Rebel forms, bold colors
Also on January 29, the marquee exhibition Rebel Forms, Bold Colors – The Art of Lajos Tihanyi opens, honoring 140 years since his birth. Expect key paintings, graphics, and personal objects that trace a career forged without academic training and powered by an extraordinary visual vocabulary. Tihanyi, who lost his hearing as a child, built colors and forms out of silence and found a voice in the language of painting. His trajectory made him a defining figure of the Nyolcak (The Eight) and one of the 20th century’s most distinctive Hungarian painters. Guided tours delve deep, with additional dates on January 31, February 7, February 8, February 11, and February 12.
Expert voices and fresh angles
January 30 features “Phenomenon: That Was Lajos Tihanyi,” an in-gallery tour by art historian Blanka Bán. Why did his parents imagine a different future for him? Why are some canvases painted on both sides? What did contemporaries say about his personality—and how did he capture them in portraits? Bán tracks the arc from fauvist color to nonfigurative abstraction and connects the dots.
January 31 continues with Concrete Embroidery—writer Rita Halász’s subjective tour, blending literary insight and art history for a layered, personal take on Tihanyi’s world.
Choruses, circles, and The Eight
On February 1, the first-floor dome hall fills with the Sunday Choir Concert by the Albert Schweitzer Chamber Choir and Chamber Orchestra—a soaring acoustic interlude in the middle of all the art. The same day, a pre-announced guided tour dives into The Eight, the group initially known as the Seekers, who exhibited together only from 1909 to 1912, across three shows. Short-lived, yes; but their impact jolted Hungarian cultural life like a scientific and technological revolution.
Online and multilingual access
On February 3, an online tour opens the Tihanyi exhibition to fans at home. February 8 adds a French-language guided visit—Budapest–Berlin–Paris. L’art de Lajos Tihanyi—tracing the artist’s cosmopolitan turn. And on February 10, the gallery streams an online tour for The Silence of Images. Adolf Fényes (1867–1945) memorial exhibition, with follow-up in-person guided visits on February 7.
From palatial crypt to panoramic dome
February 8’s Building Tour – From Crypt to Dome reveals the former royal palace’s hidden wonders: the Habsburg palatine crypt, the panoramic dome, and other architectural treasures. Along the way, visitors get a primer on the museum’s history and collection in situ—a living lesson in stone, light, and art.
Masquerades, models, and masks
Carnival spirit lands on February 10 with Toddlers – Venetian Carnival. Little travelers whirl through Italy’s city of masks with imaginary carousel rides, dancing, and playful role swaps. The finale: crafting a fancy carnival mask to take home.
Charm, cities, and abstraction
February 5 pairs Winkler Nóra, art manager, and art historian Tünde Topor for Lajos Tihanyi, the Restless Charmer—an energetic co-led tour. The next day, writer and art historian Rita Halász maps Tihanyi’s stylistic journey in Budapest–Berlin–Paris: how café culture, Berlin’s avant-garde, and Parisian modernism nudged him from figurative compositions toward a pure language of colors and forms.
Bodies in art, then and now
Also on February 5, Mama, Look! – The Beauty of the Body explores the depiction of the human form—especially the nude—across eras, reflecting ideals and the human model of each age. The tour centers on the renewed exhibition Nude Sculptures from the Turn of the Century. On February 7, Create! – Naked Reality ranges from the 19th century to contemporary pieces, then turns visitors into makers: after a gallery walk, participants use their own bodies to create art via body prints.
A season of discovery
From toddler snow dances to detective workshops, choral music to crypt walks, and from The Eight’s shockwave to Tihanyi’s radical evolution, the Hungarian National Gallery is staging a winter full of color, curiosity, and connection—all roads leading through Budapest to a master who built symphonies of paint from silence.
