The Hungarian National Gallery, Hungary’s largest public collection charting the rise and evolution of local fine art, is filling February with tours, workshops, festivals, concerts, and family days. Alongside permanent and temporary exhibitions, visitors can join Hungarian- and foreign-language guided tours, while kids get creative clubs, art education sessions, and summer camps tailored just for them.
Spotlight on Lajos Tihanyi (Tihanyi Lajos)
A major thread this month is the sweeping celebration of Lajos Tihanyi, marking the 140th anniversary of his birth. Lose yourself in a special career-spanning show featuring his most important paintings, graphics, and personal objects. Having lost his hearing as a child, Tihanyi conjured color and form out of silence, forging a distinctive voice in paint. Without academic training, he built an extraordinary visual language that made him a defining figure of the Nyolcak (The Eight) and one of the most original artists in early 20th-century Hungarian painting. Multiple guided tours—Hungarian, English, French, and more—let you dive deeper into his path from figuration to pure color and form.
Guided Tours You Can Stream or Stroll
Can’t make it to Buda Castle? On February 3, an online tour walks you through the Tihanyi exhibition from home, exploring the restless charmer behind the canvases. Prefer in-person? February 5 brings a joint tour, Lajos Tihanyi, the Restless Charmer, led by art manager Nóra Winkler (Winkler Nóra) and art historian Tünde Topor (Topor Tünde), teasing out his flair and radical turns. On February 6, writer and art historian Rita Halász (Halász Rita) connects Budapest, Berlin, and Paris in tracing how café culture, Berlin’s avant-garde, and Parisian modernism pushed Tihanyi toward abstraction.
French speakers, circle February 8: Budapest–Berlin–Paris. L’art de Lajos Tihanyi offers a francophone window into his work. On February 13, Rebellious Forms, Bold Colors – The Art of Lajos Tihanyi welcomes English speakers for a focused tour. Expect repeat Hungarian-language deep dives on February 8, 11, and 12, ensuring ample chances to catch the show with expert context.
Adolf Fényes (Fényes Adolf), Quiet Poet of Light
Another highlight: The Images of Silence. Adolf Fényes (1867–1945) (A csend képei. Fényes Adolf [1867–1945]). Tours on February 7 and 21 guide visitors through the memorial exhibition and related works in the permanent collection, while an online tour on February 10 suits armchair museum-goers. For those who want curatorial insight, February 15 brings a curator-led visit with Ágnes Horváth (Horváth Ágnes), sharpening the focus on Fényes’s nuanced light and everyday scenes.
Body, Beauty, and the Nude
The human form takes center stage across several programs. Mama, Look! – The Beauty of the Human Body runs on February 5 and 12, zooming in on Nude Sculptures from the Turn of the Century and how ideals of beauty shift across eras. An English-language counterpart, Look at That, Mom! – The Beauty of the Human Body, lands on February 19, again spotlighting the reimagined nude sculpture display from the 19th–20th centuries. On February 22, Nude Sculptures from the Turn of the Century (Aktszobrok a századfordulóról) offers another guided pass through the updated nude sculpture selection.
Hands-on for Kids and Families
Color It Again! museum workshop for kids returns February 4, 11, and 18, time-traveling through old paintings, genre scenes, portraits, and archival photos to peek into daily life: what people wore, used, played, and dreamed about. Inspired by what they see, children draw, paint, make comics, and invent stories. On February 10, Tots in the Gallery – Venetian Carnival jets off to Italy’s most glamorous masked revelry: expect carousel vibes, dancing, role play, and a DIY ornate mask to take home. February 21 brings Adventure in the Gallery – Carnival Transformation with two age-split guided tours: 10:30–11:15 for ages 6–9 and 11:30–12:15 for ages 10–13. February 24’s Preschoolers in the Gallery – How Colorful! mixes playful gallery games with a studio session to discover how painters worked and what artworks reveal.
Create, Print, Transform
Create! – Naked Reality (Alkoss! – Meztelen valóság) on February 7 spans from the 19th century to today, unpacking the human body across eras. After a gallery walk, your own body parts become theme and tool as you make bold body prints. On February 25, Intellectual Fitness – Sculpture Brought to Life asks: can a sculpture awaken? Can you fall in love with an impeccably carved form? This edition blends nude sculpture, love, and myth, roaming the permanent collection and revisiting the renewed nude displays.
Love Stories, Music, and Double Takes
Valentine’s Day is busy. The Most Beautiful Hungarian Paintings of Love traces artists and their muses—joyful, passionate, stormy, even tragic—through works by Pál Szinyei Merse (Szinyei Merse Pál), János Vaszary (Vaszary János), and Róbert Berény (Berény Róbert). Love Is in the Air leads you to muses, lovers, and artists’ wives, drawing from painting and sculpture gems. Music buffs can join Ádám Bősze (Bősze Ádám) and Gábor Bellák (Bellák Gábor) for a musical tour through Tihanyi’s Budapest–Berlin–Paris orbit and the pulsating first decades of the 20th century. Also on February 14, art historian Gergely Barki (Barki Gergely) digs into Tihanyi’s oeuvre with an extra lecture, Two or None: Doublings and Gaps in the Work of Lajos Tihanyi, probing repetitions, absences, and the mysteries they reveal.
Behind the Scenes of Buda Castle
From crypt to dome: on February 8, the Building Walk – From the Crypt to the Dome unlocks the former royal palace’s secrets. Explore the Habsburg Palatine Crypt, climb to the panorama-rich dome, and wander other architectural highlights while tracing the Gallery’s own history and collection.
