Hungary’s modernist firebrand Lajos Tihanyi gets a full-throttle tribute in Budapest with a sweeping career exhibition and a packed calendar of guided tours on-site and online. Hosted at 1014 Budapest, Szent George Square (Szent György tér) 2, the show throws open Tihanyi’s world with nearly two hundred works: crucial paintings, graphics, and personal items that trace the artist’s restless, cross-border journey from early color-drenched experiments to crystalline abstraction. The exhibition marks 140 years since his birth—and a life that turned silence into vision after he lost his hearing in childhood.
Tihanyi never pursued academic training, and that independence gave him an exceptional visual language—bold color harmonies, cubist structure, a feel for abstraction—that made him a founding figure of The Eight (Nyolcak) and one of the most distinctive voices in 20th-century Hungarian painting. The tours promise an up-close look at the work and the person: a self-fashioned innovator whose art absorbed and reimagined the scenes of Budapest, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, and later New York.
Guided Tours: Times, Tickets, Capacity
The core guided tour series, Rebel Forms, Bold Colors – The Art of Lajos Tihanyi, runs 60 minutes, max 17 people, starting at the information desk. Participation requires both a temporary exhibition ticket and a program ticket priced at 1,500 HUF (about 4.17 USD). Available dates:
– January 23, 2026, 16:00–17:00
– January 29, 2026, 16:00–17:00
– January 31, 2026, 15:00–16:00
– February 7, 2026, 11:00–12:00
– February 8, 2026, 15:00–16:00
– February 11, 2026, 16:00–17:00
– February 12, 2026, 16:00–17:00
Expect a brisk walkthrough of the major works alongside stories about Tihanyi’s path—from the Nagybánya school’s nature-centered approach to the jolt of European avant-garde scenes that shaped his experiments. You’ll hear how a deaf child built a personal grammar of color and form, and why he became a central chapter in Hungarian modernism.
Sign-Language Interpreted Tour
Accessibility is front and center on January 25, 2026, 15:00–16:00, with a sign-language interpreted version of Rebel Forms, Bold Colors. The content mirrors the standard tour but adds interpretation to ensure hearing, hard-of-hearing, and deaf visitors experience it together. The same ticketing applies—temporary exhibition ticket plus the 1,500 HUF (about 4.17 USD) program ticket—but members of SINOSZ can join for free with prior registration by January 20. Duration: 60 minutes. Max 17. Meeting point: information desk.
“Phenomenon: That Was Lajos Tihanyi” with Historian Blanka Bán
On January 30, 2026, 16:00–17:00, art historian Blanka Bán leads a deep dive into the painter who helped found The Eight (Nyolcak). The tour maps Tihanyi’s early bourgeois Budapest roots, the illness that cost him his hearing, and the self-taught, experimental streak that freed his brush. You’ll track how Nagybánya’s plein-air lessons met the metropolitan currents of Paris, Vienna, Berlin, and New York, and how he moved between expressive flair, cubist structure, and abstraction while staying unmistakably himself. Expect answers to sharp questions: What did his parents envision for his adult life? Why did he paint both sides of some canvases? How did contemporaries read his personality—and how did his portraits dissect theirs? Tickets: full 7,400 HUF (about 20.54 USD), reduced 4,200 HUF (about 11.65 USD). Max 20. Meet at the ground-floor exhibition entrance.
Online Tour and Weeklong Virtual Access
Can’t make it in person? On February 3, 2026, 19:00–20:00, an online guided tour unfolds on Zoom, marking the Day of Hungarian Culture. After the live hour, visitors get a full week to roam the virtual gallery independently—zooming in on works and reading all on-site texts at leisure. Fee: 1,500 HUF per person (about 4.17 USD). Max 90 participants. Duration: 60 minutes.
Tihanyi, the Restless Charmer: Nóra Winkler and Tünde Topor
On February 5, 2026, 17:00–18:00, art manager Nóra Winkler and art historian Tünde Topor co-host a portrait-centric tour that spotlights Tihanyi’s psychological acuity. A founder of The Eight (Nyolcak), he “painted a whole gallery” of Hungary’s early 20th-century literary and artistic luminaries, bringing psychological portraiture into local painting with unsparing clarity. He turned the lens on himself, too, and closed his career with striking abstract compositions. What do these works and stories say to viewers now? Tickets: full 7,400 HUF (about 20.54 USD), reduced 4,200 HUF (about 11.65 USD). Max 36. Meet at the ground-floor entrance. Tickets are sold online and on-site, first come, first served. Afterward, you can explore the show independently until 18:45.
Budapest–Berlin–Paris: The Road to Abstraction with Rita Halász
On February 6, 2026, 16:00–17:00, writer and art historian Rita Halász traces Tihanyi’s shift from figurative scenes to a language of pure color and form. The tour follows turn-of-the-century café culture, Berlin’s avant-garde, and Parisian modernism as engines behind the transformation. Tickets: full 7,400 HUF (about 20.54 USD), reduced 4,200 HUF (about 11.65 USD). Max 20. Meet at the ground-floor entrance. Tickets available online and on-site in order of arrival.
Dates at a Glance
Budapest hosts the program on January 23, 25, 29, 30, 31; February 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11–12, 2026. The broader calendar around the show teems with related events—from kids’ workshops to English-language tours on February 13, Italian-language tours, and music-infused evenings—cementing Tihanyi’s anniversary as one of the city’s cultural highlights.
Note: Museum images are under the copyright of the Museum of Fine Arts.
