A sweeping retrospective in Budapest throws open the doors to Lajos Tihanyi’s world, bringing together nearly two hundred works by the great experimenter of Hungarian expressionism and the avant-garde. On view are his most important paintings and works on paper, alongside intimate estate objects that ground the artist’s itinerant life. Tihanyi, who lost his hearing in childhood, carved a voice out of silence—finding his language in color, line, and daring abstraction. Without formal academic training, he forged a fiercely independent visual idiom that made him a founding force of The Eight (Nyolcak) and one of 20th‑century Hungarian painting’s most original figures. Venue: 1014 Budapest, Szent György Square (Szent György tér) 2. Photography is under the copyright protection of the Museum of Fine Arts.
Join a guided visit to dive deeper into Tihanyi’s practice. Entry to guided tours requires both a temporary exhibition ticket and a tour program ticket priced at $4.10. Duration: 60 minutes. Maximum group size: 17. Meeting point: information desk.
Guided tour dates:
– 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”
January 30, 2026, 16:00–17:00
Art historian Blanka Bán leads a focused tour on Tihanyi’s place in early 20th‑century Hungarian modernism. Born into a Budapest bourgeois milieu, Tihanyi’s hearing loss as a youth never blunted his ambition. Free of academic constraints, he built a painterly language that was strikingly loose, curious, and experimental. His sensibility was shaped by wherever he lived and worked: color‑rich early experiments gave way to the lessons of the Nagybánya naturalist school, while longer and shorter stints in Paris, Vienna, Berlin, and New York sharpened his vision. His canvases fold in expressionist intensity, cubist structure, and abstraction—yet remain unmistakably his across periods.
Expect sharp biographical reveals: What did his parents hope he would become as an adult? Why did he paint on both sides of some canvases? What did contemporaries say about his personality—and how did he mirror theirs in portraits? And how did he move from the hot palette of fauvism to nonfigurative painting? Full-price ticket: $20.30. Discount ticket: $11.50. Max. 20 visitors. Meeting point: ground floor, exhibition entrance.
Online Guided Tour
February 3, 2026, 19:00–20:00
Marking the 140th anniversary of Tihanyi’s birth, this online tour opens the exhibition to audiences at home. The program runs on Zoom and is designed to deepen understanding of Tihanyi’s color, form, and method—an artist who made silence speak. After the live session, participants can independently navigate the virtual gallery for one week, zoom in on artworks, and explore texts in the exhibition space at their own pace. Participation fee: $4.10 per person. Maximum 90 participants. Length: 60 minutes.
Lajos Tihanyi, the Restless Charmer
February 5, 2026, 17:00–18:00
A joint guided tour by art manager Nóra Winkler and art historian Tünde Topor sets Tihanyi’s unusual life against his unorthodox artistic path—and the adventurous story of how his estate returned home. A founder of The Eight (Nyolcak), he “painted an entire gallery of early 20th‑century Hungarian literary and artistic notables,” with pin‑sharp insight. “Psychological portraiture entered Hungarian painting with him,” and his portraits double as deep psychological studies. Alongside peers and cultural icons, he often turned the lens on himself, while the abstract compositions of his final years still resonate today. What do his works and their backstories say to viewers now? Full-price ticket: $20.30. Discount ticket: $11.50. Max. 36 visitors. Meeting point: ground floor, exhibition entrance. Tickets sold online and on-site, first come, first served. After the tour, the exhibition remains open for independent viewing until 18:45.
Budapest–Berlin–Paris: On the Road to Abstraction
February 6, 2026, 16:00–17:00
Writer and art historian Rita Halász charts how turn‑of‑the‑century café culture, the Berlin avant‑garde, and Parisian modernism shaped Tihanyi’s style—and how he moved from figurative compositions to a self‑sufficient language of pure color and form. Full-price ticket: $20.30. Discount ticket: $11.50. Max. 20 visitors. Meeting point: ground floor, exhibition entrance. Tickets available online and on-site, first come, first served.
Dates and Location
Budapest events: February 3, 2026; February 5, 2026; February 6, 2026; February 7, 2026; February 8, 2026; February 11–12, 2026. Address for the exhibition and in-person tours: 1014 Budapest, Szent György Square (Szent György tér) 2.
The organizers reserve the right to change times and programs.
