The Hungarian National Gallery, the country’s largest public collection documenting and showcasing the rise and evolution of Hungarian fine arts, rolls into February with a full slate: permanent and temporary exhibitions, guided tours in multiple languages, themed programs, family days, festivals, and concerts. Kids can dive into creative clubs, art education sessions, and summer camps. Everything is centered in Budapest, with spotlights on Lajos Tihanyi and Adolf Fényes leading the month’s stories.
Tihanyi’s Road to Abstraction
On February 6, writer and art historian Rita Halász leads an unconventional tour, Budapest–Berlin–Paris: Lajos Tihanyi’s Path to Abstraction, tracing how café culture at the turn of the century, the Berlin avant-garde, and Parisian modernism shaped Tihanyi’s style. Born 140 years ago, Tihanyi was a defining member of The Eight (Nyolcak), and his painting became one of the early 20th-century Hungarian avant-garde’s most intriguing ventures. The tour follows his shift from figurative compositions toward a self-contained language of pure color and form.
Make It! – Naked Reality
On February 7, Make It! – Naked Reality digs into one of art history’s oldest subjects: the human body. The session surveys works from the 19th century to the contemporary moment. After a floor walk, participants turn their own body parts into both theme and tool by creating body prints.
Adolf Fényes: Silence and Light
Also on February 7, a guided tour introduces The Images of Silence: Adolf Fényes (1867–1945) Memorial Exhibition and related works in the permanent collection. The online version appears on February 10, letting visitors explore Fényes’s painterly world from home. Later in the month, on February 15, curator Ágnes Horváth leads a special tour through the memorial show, and on February 21, another guided visit returns to Fényes’s quiet, resonant universe. On February 28, the chamber exhibition The Taste of Sunshine gets a curator’s-eye overview with art historian Edit Plesznivy, who threads emblematic masterpieces through the painter’s key periods while touching on his family background and education.
Rebellious Forms, Bold Colors
The Gallery marks Tihanyi’s 140th anniversary with a special retrospective on February 7, 8, 11, and 12, showcasing his most important paintings, works on paper, and personal objects. Having lost his hearing in childhood, Tihanyi conjured colors and forms out of silence and forged a distinct voice in the language of painting. Without academic training, he developed an extraordinary visual vocabulary that made him one of The Eight (Nyolcak) and one of 20th-century Hungarian art’s most original figures. Guided tours invite visitors to immerse themselves more deeply in his practice. An English-language tour lands on February 13 under the title Rebellious Forms, Bold Colors – The Art of Lajos Tihanyi, while a French-language walk—Budapest–Berlin–Paris. L’art de Lajos Tihanyi—arrives on February 8.
From Crypt to Dome
On February 8, the Building Walk – From the Crypt to the Dome opens up the former Royal Palace’s hidden marvels. The tour covers the Habsburg Palatine Crypt, the panoramic dome with its sweeping view over the city, and other architectural treasures. It’s also a primer on the Gallery’s own story and its collections.
Kids, Carnival, and Color
The littlest visitors get their own Venetian journey on February 10 with Toddlers – Venetian Carnival. Expect carefree fun: carousel rides, dancing, role-play, and, finally, crafting a must-have carnival mask. On February 11, 18, and 25, Color It Anew! – Museum Workshop for Kids asks: How did people live long ago? What do pictures tell us about the past? Through paintings, genre scenes, portraits, and old photos, kids peek into everyday life—what people used, how they dressed, what they played, what they dreamed. Inspired by the art, they draw, paint, make comics, and spin their own stories. On February 24, Preschoolers in the Gallery – How Colorful! mixes gallery games with studio making to discover what paintings and sculptures reveal and how artists worked.
The Nude, Reconsidered
The beauty and ideals of the human body are front and center throughout the month. Mama, Look! – The Beauty of the Body runs February 12 and 26, with guided tours of the renewed exhibition Nude Sculptures from the Turn of the Century. The English-language Look at That, Mom! – The Beauty of the Human Body on February 19 offers the same deep dive. On February 22, a guided visit to Nude Sculptures from the Turn of the Century returns to track how depictions of the nude shift with changing ideals.
Valentine’s Day, Music, and Myth
February 14 blooms with love and drama. The Most Beautiful Hungarian Paintings of Love chases artists and muses through passionate, blissful, stormy, and tragic stories via works by Pál Szinyei Merse, János Vaszary, and Róbert Berény. Love Is in the Air leads visitors to muses, lovers, and artists’ wives, presenting the greatest and most tragic love tales from the painting and sculpture collections. The day also brings a musical guided tour in Tihanyi’s exhibition with Ádám Bősze and Gábor Bellák, framing Budapest, Berlin, Paris, and the pulsing first decades of the 20th century with sound. Art historian Gergely Barki caps the Tihanyi focus with an encore lecture: Two or None: Doublings and Gaps in Lajos Tihanyi’s Oeuvre.
Carnival Transformations and Living Statues
On February 21, Adventure in the Gallery – Carnival Transformation offers age-tailored guided tours: 10:30–11:15 for ages 6–9, 11:30–12:15 for ages 10–13. On February 25, Intellectual Fitness – Statue Brought to Life asks whether a sculpture can come alive—and whether one can fall in love with a perfectly crafted artwork. The session blends nudes, love, and mythology, roaming the permanent collection and the renewed turn-of-the-century nude sculpture show before a hands-on workshop closes the day.
