The Hungarian National Gallery holds the largest public collection charting the birth and evolution of Hungarian fine art, and this winter it’s buzzing. Expect permanent and temporary exhibitions, guided tours in multiple languages, themed programs, family days, festivals, concerts, and a full slate of creative workshops for kids—from studio clubs to art education sessions and summer camps—set against Buda Castle’s grand halls.
For the tiniest visitors: snowflakes and carnival masks
On January 27, Tots – Snowflake Dance invites little ones to bundle up in their softest gloves and warmest snow boots for a magical winter adventure inside the Gallery. Kids explore how forests turn white, spot hidden colors in snowy landscapes, and sing, tell stories, and dance with the snowflakes. It’s a playful, sensory introduction to art and the season.
On February 10, Tots – Venetian Carnival whisks families to Italy’s most elegant masked balls and pageants. Expect carousel vibes, dancing, role play, and a hands-on finale: crafting a fancy carnival mask to take home. Budapest’s youngest culture-goers get the spotlight, with parents along for the ride.
Kids become detectives—and artists
The Color It Anew! museum workshop series turns January 28 into a creative caper. The Gallery’s spaces hide mysterious tales, and only the sharpest young sleuths will do. Together, kids track one of Hungary’s most original avant-garde artists, Lajos Tihanyi, by examining dozens of his works to uncover every concealed clue. When the puzzle falls into place, they shift to making: forging playful “forgeries,” building a composite sketch, and experimenting with photo manipulation.
The series returns on February 4 and 11 with time travel through paintings, genre scenes, portraits, and old photographs. How did people live, dress, play, and dream? Inspired by what they see, kids draw, paint, craft comics, and invent stories of their own.
“Mama, look!”—seeing silence and beauty
On January 29, Mama, Look! – Silence Speaks explores how Tihanyi’s childhood deaf-mutism shaped—then supercharged—his artistic voice. The session asks how a seeming disadvantage became a distinctive strength, forging a unique visual language that still resonates.
On February 5, Mama, Look! – The Beauty of the Body dives into the human figure and the nude, one of art’s oldest themes. The tour explores how each era’s ideals and human image are reflected in form, featuring the refreshed exhibition Nude Sculptures from the Turn of the Century.
Headline show: Lajos Tihanyi, the rebel of color and form
Marking the 140th anniversary of Lajos Tihanyi’s birth, the Gallery unveils a major retrospective, Rebellious Forms, Bold Colors – The Art of Lajos Tihanyi, featuring key paintings, graphics, and personal objects. Having lost his hearing as a child, Tihanyi conjured colors and forms from silence, finding a singular voice in paint without academic training. His daring visual language made him a pivotal member of The Eight (Nyolcak) and a standout of 20th-century Hungarian art. The exhibition is paired with frequent guided tours to dive deeper into his evolution.
On January 30, art historian Blanka Bán leads a tour titled Phenomenon: That Was Lajos Tihanyi, unpacking family expectations, his habit of painting on both sides of canvases, his personality as seen by contemporaries and captured in his portraits, and his journey from Fauvist color to abstraction.
January 31 brings a subjective, writerly angle with author-art historian Rita Halász guiding Concrete Embroidery, her personal take on Tihanyi’s work. On February 6, she returns with Budapest–Berlin–Paris: Tihanyi’s Road to Abstraction, tracing how café culture at the fin de siècle, the Berlin avant-garde, and Parisian modernism led him from figurative composition to the autonomous language of pure color and form.
February 5 pairs art-world voices as cultural manager Nóra Winkler and art historian Tünde Topor co-host Lajos Tihanyi, the Restless Charmer, a tour exploring the artist’s charisma and creative restlessness.
February 8 adds a French-language guided visit, Budapest–Berlin–Paris. L’art de Lajos Tihanyi, opening the show to Francophone audiences.
The Eight, shaken and stirring
Alongside the Tihanyi retrospective, a pre-announced guided tour on February 1 focuses on The Eight (Nyolcak), originally introduced as the “Seekers.” Though the group was active for only three years, 1909–1912, and staged just three joint exhibitions, their appearance jolted Hungary’s cultural and art scene—like a scientific and technological revolution in miniature.
Music under the dome, and online from home
February 1 also brings a Sunday Choir Concert in the first-floor dome hall, with the Albert Schweitzer Chamber Choir and Orchestra filling the architecture with choral richness.
If you prefer the sofa, the Gallery offers Online Guided Tours: Tihanyi’s exhibition on February 3, and the Adolf Fényes (Fényes Adolf) show on February 10. Explore major works and context remotely with live expert commentary.
Bodies, prints, and quiet pictures
February 7’s Create! – Naked Reality starts with a gallery walk through depictions of the human body from the 19th century to today. Afterward, your own body becomes both subject and tool as participants make body prints—an intimate, tactile way to engage with form and presence.
The same day offers a curated look at The Pictures of Silence: Adolf Fényes (Fényes Adolf) (1867–1945) Memorial Exhibition, paired with works from the permanent collection, revealing the painter’s understated power and meditative tone.
From crypt to dome: a building tour with secrets
On February 8, Building Walk – From Crypt to Dome unlocks the marvels of the former royal palace. The tour moves from the Habsburg Palatine Crypt to the dome’s sweeping panorama and other hidden corners, weaving the history of the Hungarian National Gallery with the architecture’s quiet drama.
Keep exploring Tihanyi’s world
Rebellious Forms, Bold Colors – The Art of Lajos Tihanyi returns frequently across late January and February with guided visits for deeper insights into his techniques, shifts in style, and personal mythology. Whether you’re stepping into the snow with toddlers, sleuthing with young art detectives, chasing avant-garde breakthroughs with curators, or listening to voices rise under the dome, Budapest’s Hungarian National Gallery has winter covered.
