The Hungarian National Gallery, the country’s largest public collection tracing the rise and evolution of Hungarian visual art, is rolling out a packed February in Budapest. Expect blockbuster retrospectives, multilingual guided tours, online walk-throughs, family days, kids’ workshops, festivals, and concerts. Children can dive into creative clubs, art education sessions, and summer camps, while adults get deep-dive tours and lectures across painting, sculpture, and modernism.
Spotlight on Lajos Tihanyi
The month centers on Lajos Tihanyi, born 140 years ago, a defining figure of the Nyolcak (The Eight). Deaf since childhood, he forged color and form from silence, developing a distinctive visual language without formal academic training. His oeuvre—paintings, drawings, and personal objects—anchors multiple events: in-person guided tours on February 7, 8, 11, and 12; an English-language tour on February 13; and a French-language tour on February 8 under the title Budapest–Berlin–Paris. L’art de Lajos Tihanyi. There’s also an online guided visit on February 3 for anyone who wants to explore the show from home.
The Eight: Brief Fire, Long Shadow
On February 1, an advance-announced tour revisits the Nyolcak, the group that initially surfaced as the Keresők (Seekers). They worked together only from 1909 to 1912 and mounted three joint exhibitions, yet their impact on Hungarian culture and the visual arts was seismic—like an intellectual and technological shock to the system. The program pairs with the Tihanyi retrospective, tracing how the group’s restless experimentation helped propel Hungarian avant-garde painting.
From Budapest to Berlin to Paris
February 6 brings a special guided tour by writer and art historian Rita Halász: Budapest–Berlin–Paris. Tihanyi Lajos útja az absztrakcióig (Lajos Tihanyi’s Path to Abstraction). She follows the painter from the café culture of the fin de siècle to the Berlin avant-garde and Parisian modernism, mapping the leap from figurative composition to the autonomy of pure color and form. On February 5, art manager Nóra Winkler and art historian Tünde Topor co-lead Tihanyi Lajos, a nyughatatlan sármőr (Lajos Tihanyi, the Restless Charmer), adding biographical spark to the aesthetic journey.
Concerts Under the Dome
The gallery’s first-floor dome hall hosts the Albert Schweitzer Chamber Choir and Orchestra on February 1 for a Sunday choral concert, a warm acoustic counterpoint to the visual feast elsewhere in the building. Later, on February 14, music returns with a joint lyrical tour by Ádám Bősze and Gábor Bellák: Budapest, Berlin, Paris, and the pulsing early decades of the 20th century come alive inside the Tihanyi exhibition.
Adolf Fényes: Silence and Light
A major memorial exhibition—A csend képei. Fényes Adolf (1867–1945) (The Images of Silence)—gets multiple guided entries. Join tours on February 7 and 21, a curator-led visit with Ágnes Horváth on February 15, and an online tour on February 10 to unpack Fényes’s delicate atmospheres and the dialogue with works from the permanent collection.
Rebellious Forms, Bold Colors
Two strands converge around the body. The program Mama, nézd! – A test szépsége (Look, Mom! – The Beauty of the Human Body) runs on February 5 and 12, examining how representations of the human figure—especially the nude—reflect shifting ideals. The English version, Look at That, Mom! – The Beauty of the Human Body, repeats on February 19. On February 22, Aktszobrok a századfordulóról (Nude Sculptures from the Turn of the Century) offers a guided tour of the revamped 19th–20th-century galleries. And the participatory workshop Alkoss! – Meztelen valóság (Create! – Naked Reality) on February 7 tracks the nude from the 19th century to today, before visitors make body prints of their own hands and limbs as art tools and motifs.
Architecture Walk: From Crypt to Cupola
On February 8, Épületséta – Kriptától a kupoláig (Building Tour – From Crypt to Cupola) opens up hidden corners of the former royal palace, now home to the gallery. The route includes the Habsburg palatinal crypt, the cupola with its sweeping views, and other rarely seen architectural spaces, alongside the institution’s history and collections.
Carnival, Kids, and Comics
Children’s studio sessions Színezd újra! – múzeumi műhely gyerekeknek (Color It Anew! – Museum Workshop for Kids) run on February 4, 11, and 18, using paintings, genre scenes, portraits, and old photos to explore how people once lived—what they wore, played with, and dreamed about. Kids draw, paint, craft comics, and invent their own stories. February 10’s Tipegők – Velencei karnevál (Toddlers – Venetian Carnival) sets the tiniest travelers spinning through Venice’s grand masquerades, with carousels, dance, role-play, and a take-home decorated mask. On February 21, Kaland a Galériában – Farsangi átváltozás (Adventure in the Gallery – Carnival Transformation) offers two age-tailored tours: ages 6–9 at 10:30, and ages 10–13 at 11:30.
Valentine’s Day: Love Stories in Frames
February 14 goes all in on passion. A legszebb magyar szerelmes festmények (The Most Beautiful Hungarian Love Paintings) searches for artists and muses through blissful, tempestuous, and tragic romances by Pál Szinyei Merse, János Vaszary, and Róbert Berény. That same day, Love Is in the Air leads visitors to muses, lovers, and artists’ wives, with the greatest and most heartbreaking love stories pulled from the painting and sculpture collections. For deeper context on Tihanyi, Gergely Barki’s bonus lecture Kettő vagy egy sem. Duplázások és hiátusok Tihanyi Lajos életművében (Two or None: Doublings and Gaps in Lajos Tihanyi’s Oeuvre) parses the enigmas and missing links in the painter’s body of work.
Multilingual Doors Open
Beyond English and French programming, there’s Visita guidata in italiano on February 13, a sweep through major Hungarian masterpieces from the Middle Ages to today, with special emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries—and, who knows, maybe a glimpse of Dante among the canvases. The calendar stays flexible with more Tihanyi tours on February 7, 8, 11, and 12; an English Rebellious Forms, Bold Colors – The Art of Lajos Tihanyi on February 13; and constant options to join in person or online.
Budapest’s Hungarian National Gallery invites everyone—curious kids, first-time visitors, and seasoned art lovers—to step into February’s mix of color, form, music, and architectural wonder.
