The Hungarian National Gallery, home to the country’s largest public collection charting the rise and evolution of Hungarian fine art, kicks off 2026 with a packed, people-first program. Think blockbuster exhibitions and intimate curator tours, multilingual guided walks, family days, creative workshops for kids, festivals, concerts, and even online experiences. Little ones get creative clubs, art-education sessions, and summer camps. January is dominated by a sweeping tribute to Lajos Tihanyi, the avant-garde painter whose vivid language of color grew out of silence.
Lajos Tihanyi at 140: Rebel Forms, Bold Colors
January 11 marks the opening of Rebel Forms, Bold Colors – The Art of Lajos Tihanyi, a career-spanning exhibition honoring the 140th anniversary of his birth. It gathers his most important paintings, graphics, and personal objects, foregrounding the singular voice he forged in paint after losing his hearing as a child. Without academic training, Tihanyi developed an extraordinary visual language that made him a key figure of The Eight artists’ group and one of the most original painters in 20th-century Hungarian art. Guided tours throughout the month unpack his techniques, turning points, and the tender ferocity of his palette. Location: Budapest.
First Steps in the Snow: Toddler Dance
On January 13 and 27, Tipegők (Toddlers) – Snowflake Dance bundles up the tiniest visitors for a magical winter adventure inside the Gallery. Watch the forest turn white, hunt for hidden colors in snowy landscapes, then sing, tell stories, and dance with the snowflakes. Location: Budapest.
Color It Again! Kids’ Detective Workshop
January 14, 21, and 28 bring the Color It Again! museum workshop for children, where the Gallery’s spaces are wrapped in mysteries and only the keenest junior detectives can crack the case. The mission: follow the trail of a great painter—Lajos Tihanyi—and uncover his secrets. Expect close looking across dozens of artworks, searching for tiny hidden details, and finally assembling the puzzle. The hands-on twist: forge paintings, create a composite portrait, and experiment with photo manipulation. Location: Budapest.
Behind the Scenes: Curators and Historians
On January 15, curator Mariann Gergely leads a special tour for TIHANYI 140, revisiting how, until the 1970s, Hungarian audiences mostly knew Tihanyi’s work through black-and-white reproductions. His estate made a dramatic journey from Paris to the Hungarian National Gallery 55 years ago, changing that picture. On January 16, art historian Gergely Barki delivers The Human Behind the Palette, an unconventional guided tour within the TIHANYI 140 exhibition. Location: Budapest.
Italy Meets Hungary: Guided Tour in Italian
January 16 offers Visita guidata in italiano, a journey through the main masterpieces of Hungarian art from the Middle Ages to today, with a special focus on the 19th and 20th centuries. Expect artists, movements, and—who knows—maybe a chance encounter with Dante among the canvases. Location: Budapest.
Abstract Immersion: Paint, Learn, Play
On January 17, Create! – Abstract Experience Painting dives into abstraction’s open playground: color and form, geometric patterns, or free-flowing brushwork. Meet Sean Scully, Judit Reigl, and Simon Hantaï—giants of the abstract tradition—on a gallery walk, then paint your own eye-catching abstract piece in the workshop. Location: Budapest.
Writers in the Gallery
Also on January 17, writer and art historian Rita Halász leads a subjective tour titled Embroidered in Concrete, threading personal perspective through the show’s themes. Location: Budapest.
Nudes at the Turn of the Century
January 18 highlights Nude Sculptures from the Turn of the Century. The nude, one of art’s oldest subjects, takes on new shapes across eras, bending to the beauty ideals of each age. Join a guided tour of the renewed 19th–20th-century nude sculpture display and track how form and gaze have shifted. Location: Budapest.
Mind Fitness: New Year, New Style
On January 21, Mind Fitness – New Year, New Style spotlights artists who reinvented themselves. János Vaszary, József Rippl-Rónai, and Aurél Bernáth each worked across multiple styles—sometimes so dramatically that paintings from different periods feel like different artists. After a gallery walk, try on one of Rippl-Rónai’s styles in the studio. Location: Budapest.
At Home With Tihanyi
January 22 offers an online guided tour of the Tihanyi exhibition in honor of the Day of Hungarian Culture, bringing the show to your couch while delivering deep-dive context on his painting. Location: Budapest.
Lectures, Kids’ Trails, and Sign-Language Access
January 24 features a lecture by art historian Gergely Barki: Two or None. Doublings and Hiatuses in Lajos Tihanyi’s Oeuvre, exploring gaps, reprises, and intriguing echoes across his career. The same day, Adventure in the Gallery – Strange Faces runs kid-friendly guided tours: 10:30–11:15 for ages 6–9 and 11:30–12:15 for ages 10–13. On January 25, Rebel Forms, Bold Colors becomes fully inclusive with a guided tour supported by sign-language interpretation, underscoring how Tihanyi turned childhood deafness into a radical visual voice. Location: Budapest.
Encore Tours and Closing Notes
The Tihanyi exhibition offers multiple guided tour slots on January 17, 18, 23, and 29, each unpacking how he conjured color and form from silence and carved out a unique place in Hungarian modernism through The Eight. The month closes on January 29 with Mama, Look! – Silence Speaks, a family program exploring how Tihanyi’s early-life condition shaped not just his daily world but also the audacity and individuality of his art. Location: Budapest.
Across January, the Hungarian National Gallery turns Budapest into an art lab—part investigation, part celebration—where toddlers dance with snowflakes, kids become art sleuths, adults rethink style, and everyone rediscovers Tihanyi’s defiant, luminous voice.
