Budapest marks the 140th birthday of Lajos Tihanyi, one of the fiercest experimenters in Hungarian Expressionism and the avant‑garde, with a sweeping retrospective and an energetic calendar of guided tours. Nearly two hundred works trace his journey: standout paintings, incisive graphics, and personal estate pieces that sketch the story of a deaf artist who carved out a voice of color and form in absolute silence. Without formal academic training, Tihanyi forged a radical visual language that made him a founding force of the Nyolcak (The Eight) and one of the most original figures in 20th‑century Hungarian painting. The exhibition is hosted at 1014 Budapest, Szent György Square (Szent György tér) 2. Photo courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts.
Rebel Forms, Daring Colors – Core Guided Tours
Dive into Tihanyi’s signature intensity on Thursday, January 29, 2026, from 16:00 to 17:00. The one‑hour tour spotlights the painter’s most important canvases and graphics alongside intimate, everyday artifacts. The artist’s loss of hearing in childhood was no setback; instead, he turned silence into color chords and abstracted rhythms, developing a style that was both free and relentlessly experimental. Entry requires a ticket to the temporary exhibition plus a program pass priced at 1,500 HUF (about 4.20 USD). Duration: 60 minutes. Maximum capacity: 17 people. Meeting point: information desk.
More slots:
– 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
“Phenomenon: That Was Lajos Tihanyi” with Art Historian Blanka Bán
On Friday, January 30, 2026, 16:00–17:00, art historian Blanka Bán leads a richly contextual tour of a painter shaped as much by cities as by technique. Tihanyi emerged from a Budapest bourgeois milieu, lost his hearing young due to severe illness, and built a self‑taught practice that remained fearless and playful. His early, color‑laden efforts matured under the influence of the Nagybánya (Baia Mare) naturalistic school, then shifted as Paris, Vienna, Berlin, and New York came into view. Expressionist charge, Cubist structure, and advancing abstraction all left marks on paintings that stayed stubbornly individual and durable. Expect answers to: What career did his parents imagine for him? Why are some works painted on both sides? How did contemporaries describe his personality—and how did he return the gaze in his psychological portraits? And how did he move from the punchy palette of Fauvism to non‑figurative painting?
Standard ticket: 7,400 HUF (about 20.70 USD). Discounted ticket: 4,200 HUF (about 11.75 USD). Maximum 20 people. Meeting point: ground floor, exhibition entrance.
Online Tour: View from Home
On Tuesday, February 3, 2026, 19:00–20:00, take the tour on Zoom and celebrate the artist’s 140th birthday from your sofa. The virtual walkthrough highlights key paintings, graphics, and personal objects, and unpacks how a self‑taught, deaf artist built one of Hungarian modernism’s most distinctive voices. After the live session, you’ll have a full week to roam the exhibition’s virtual space on your own—zoom in on artworks and dig into the texts and displays up close. Participation fee: 1,500 HUF (about 4.20 USD) per person. Maximum 90 attendees. Length: 60 minutes.
Lajos Tihanyi, the Restless Charmer
On Thursday, February 5, 2026, 17:00–18:00, art manager Nóra Winkler and art historian Tünde Topor co‑host a tour charting an extraordinary life, an unconventional career, and an estate that made an adventurous journey home. A founding member of the Nyolcak (The Eight), Tihanyi “painted a whole gallery of the early‑century greats of Hungarian literary and artistic life,” with razor‑sharp insight. “Psychological portraiture marched into Hungarian painting with him,” and his portraits double as vivid studies of character. He often returned to his own face, and the abstract compositions of his final period are no less gripping. What do Tihanyi’s paintings and stories say to us now?
Standard ticket: 7,400 HUF (about 20.70 USD). Discounted: 4,200 HUF (about 11.75 USD). Maximum 36 people. Meeting point: ground floor, exhibition entrance. Tickets available online and on‑site in order of arrival. After the tour, you can revisit the exhibition independently until 18:45.
Budapest–Berlin–Paris: The Road to Abstraction
On Friday, February 6, 2026, 16:00–17:00, writer and art historian Rita Halász leads a tour that tracks Tihanyi’s evolution from figurative scenes to a clear language of color and form. The café culture around the turn of the century, the Berlin avant‑garde, and Parisian modernism each nudged his style forward. The result: a painter who tested the limits of Hungarian avant‑garde painting while staying true to his own pulse.
Standard ticket: 7,400 HUF (about 20.70 USD). Discounted: 4,200 HUF (about 11.75 USD). Maximum 20 people. Meeting point: ground floor, exhibition entrance. Tickets online and on‑site, first come, first served.
Dates and City
– 2026.01.29. Budapest
– 2026.01.30. Budapest
– 2026.01.31. Budapest
– 2026.02.03. Budapest
– 2026.02.05. Budapest
– 2026.02.06. Budapest
– 2026.02.07. Budapest
– 2026.02.08. Budapest
– 2026.02.11.–02.12. Budapest
Organizers reserve the right to change programs and times.
