A sweeping retrospective celebrates Lajos Tihanyi, the fearless master of Hungarian Expressionism and the avant-garde, whose experiments with daring color and abstract form reshaped 20th-century art. Nearly two hundred works anchor the show: his most important paintings and graphics, plus deeply personal estate items charting an uncompromising life in art.
Born 140 years ago, Tihanyi’s paintings were known in Hungary mostly through black-and-white reproductions up to the 1970s. His estate arrived at the Hungarian National Gallery from Paris in a dramatic transfer 55 years ago, finally allowing audiences to see the chromatic force of the originals. The artist’s story is marked by a profound personal tragedy that became a catalyst for a unique vision: he lost his hearing at age eleven due to meningitis, his speech grew difficult and distorted, and he read lips to communicate. With no academic schooling, he forged a distinctive style defined by an intensely personal way of seeing and a restless curiosity that drove him from Nagybánya (Baia Mare) to the vibrant intellectual circles of his time.
He left Hungary in the winter of 1919 and never returned. By then, he was already a respected figure: a member of The Eight (Nyolcak), with a solo show in 1918 at Kassák’s MA exhibition hall. He lived in Vienna, Berlin, and Paris, later New York, and then returned to the French capital in the 1930s. Everywhere, he plugged into the era’s most vital currents, meeting key figures of the international avant-garde. His strongest thread is a riveting portrait series of well-known personalities. Alongside Hungarian luminaries like Lajos Kassák, Lajos Fülep, Endre Ady, Mihály Babits, Józsi Jenő Tersánszky, Dezső Kosztolányi, Pál Pátzay, and György Bölöni, he painted the international scene’s bright lights: Ivan Goll, Diego Rivera, Tristan Tzara, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, and Brassaï. His expressive portraits were often compared to Oskar Kokoschka’s, while in his final years he turned to magnetic abstract canvases, joining the international Abstraction-Création group in 1932.
Full-price tickets: 74 USD. Discounted: 42 USD. Maximum group sizes vary by tour. Meeting point unless noted: ground floor, at the exhibition entrance. Tickets are sold online and on-site, first come, first served.
TIHANYI 140: Guided Tour With Curator Mariann Gergely
January 15, 2026, 16:00–17:00
Tihanyi’s life and legacy unfold through his portraits, abstractions, and estate artifacts, tracing his journey from Hungarian modernist circles to the European avant-garde. Group size: 17.
The Person Behind the Palette: Guided Tour by Art Historian Gergely Barki
January 16, 2026, 16:00–17:00
Barki’s unconventional tour dives into the man as much as the art. Despite deafness and speech challenges, Tihanyi was intensely social, with many friends—and enemies—yet lived essentially alone, never forming a lasting partnership. Frank, self-consistent, and complicated, he poured that tension into his portraits and late abstractions. How did relationships shape his painting? Find out here. Full-price tickets: 74 USD; discounted: 42 USD. Max: 20.
Rebel Forms, Bold Colors – The Art of Lajos Tihanyi
January 17, 2026, 15:00–16:00
Marking the 140th anniversary of his birth, this guided visit surveys the painter’s major works and personal relics. Deaf since childhood, Tihanyi conjured soundless colors and forms, discovering a singular voice in paint. With no academic training, he became one of the most original members of The Eight (Nyolcak) and of Hungarian painting in general. Access requires an exhibition ticket plus a guided-program ticket (15 USD). Duration: 60 minutes. Max: 17. Meeting point: information desk.
Further dates:
– January 18, 2026, 11:00–12:00
– 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
Online Guided Tour
January 22, 2026, 19:00–20:00
Explore from home on the Day of Hungarian Culture. After the live Zoom tour, you get a full week to roam the virtual space on your own, zooming in on artworks and wall texts. Fee: 15 USD per person. Max: 90. Length: 60 minutes.
Rebel Forms, Bold Colors – With Sign Language Interpretation
January 25, 2026, 15:00–16:00
A fully accessible guided visit with sign language interpretation so hearing, hard-of-hearing, and deaf visitors can share the experience together. Exhibition ticket plus guided-program ticket (15 USD) required. Duration: 60 minutes. Max: 17. Meeting point: information desk.
Lajos Tihanyi, the Restless Charmer: Tour with Nóra Winkler and Tünde Topor
February 5, 2026, 17:00–18:00
A singular life, a nonconformist career, an estate that made its way home by adventure. A founding member of The Eight (Nyolcak), Tihanyi “painted an entire gallery of early 20th-century Hungarian literary and artistic figures” with exceptional insight. “With him, the psychological portrait entered Hungarian painting,” and his portraits double as incisive studies of the psyche. Alongside his many self-portraits, the abstract works of his final period are equally compelling. What do these works and stories say to us today? Full-price: 74 USD; discounted: 42 USD. Max: 36. After the tour, the exhibition remains open independently until 18:45.
Budapest–Berlin–Paris: Tihanyi’s Road to Abstraction with Rita Halász
February 6, 2026, 16:00–17:00
Writer and art historian Rita Halász tracks how the fin-de-siècle café world, Berlin’s avant-garde, and Parisian modernism shaped Tihanyi’s path—from figurative compositions to the autonomous language of pure color and form. Full-price: 74 USD; discounted: 42 USD. Max: 20.
This exhibition reveals Tihanyi’s relentless push toward invention: the portraits that pierce psychology, the late abstractions that vibrate with hard-won freedom, and the life—restless, solitary, fiercely authentic—that made them possible.
