A new year at the Hungarian National Gallery kicks off with a packed program spanning bold retrospectives, hands-on kids’ workshops, family tours, architecture walks, and guided talks that trace the trailblazing arc of 20th-century Hungarian art. From January through early February in Budapest, the spotlight falls on Lajos Tihanyi, whose 140th birth anniversary anchors exhibitions, lectures, and sign-language tours—while younger visitors dance with snowflakes, paint like József Rippl-Rónai, and chase mysteries through the galleries.
Fresh Starts, Fresh Styles
January 21 opens with Mental Fitness – New Year, New Style, a gallery walk and studio session on artists who reinvented themselves. Think János Vaszary, József Rippl-Rónai, Aurél Bernáth—names that shifted gears so radically you might not guess two canvases came from the same hand, just different eras. After a floor tour, visitors head to the workshop to create in one of Rippl-Rónai’s styles, turning resolution-season energy into color and line.
Kids Become Detectives
Also on January 21 and again on January 28, the Color It Again! museum club sets children loose on a mystery mission. The galleries hide stories, and the bravest sleuths chase the secrets of Lajos Tihanyi. Little detectives scour dozens of his works for hidden details, “forge” paintings as part of their investigative toolkit, build composite sketches, and experiment with photo edits. If they’re sharp, the puzzle clicks into place by the end.
Tihanyi at Home and Up Close
January 22 brings an online guided tour through the Tihanyi exhibition—viewers can sink into the painter’s world from the couch on the Day of Hungarian Culture. Then, from January 23 onward, Rebel Forms, Bold Colors – The Art of Lajos Tihanyi rolls out as a special career-spanning show. Tihanyi lost his hearing as a child and forged soundless harmonies of color and form, shaping a singular visual voice without academic training. A key figure of the Eight (Nyolcak), he emerged as one of modern Hungary’s most original painters. Multiple in-person guided tours of the exhibition take place on January 23, 29, 31, February 7, and February 8.
Family Hours and Sharp Minds
January 24 is all about faces and first impressions. Adventure in the Gallery – Strange Faces offers two age-specific tours: 10:30–11:15 for ages 6–9, then 11:30–12:15 for ages 10–13. Later that day, art historian Gergely Barki dives into doubleness and gaps in the oeuvre with Two or None. Doublings and Hiatuses in the Art of Lajos Tihanyi—a lecture that reads the edges of a life’s work.
Accessible and Inclusive
On January 25, the Tihanyi show features a guided tour with sign-language interpretation, aligning the exhibition’s themes of silence, sight, and voice with broad accessibility. January 29 adds Mama, Look! – When Silence Speaks, a family program that traces how Tihanyi’s childhood deafness didn’t just shape his life, but sharpened his art into something unmistakable.
For the Smallest Visitors
January 27 brings Toddlers – Snowflake Dance. Put on the softest mittens and warmest snow boots—then sing, tell stories, and whirl with snowflakes through a wintry gallery world, discovering how the forest turns white and what colors lie hidden in snow-bright landscapes.
Writers in the Rooms
January 31 features Concrete Embroidery – writer Rita Halász’s subjective tour, blending literary insight with art history across selected works. On February 6, Halász returns with Budapest–Berlin–Paris: Lajos Tihanyi’s Road to Abstraction, a guided journey through the café culture of the fin de siècle, the Berlin avant-garde, and Parisian modernism—tracing Tihanyi’s pivot from figurative compositions to a pure language of color and form.
The Eight Shake Things Up
On February 1, a scheduled tour focuses on the Eight (Nyolcak). First known as the Seekers, the group worked together only from 1909 to 1912 and mounted three joint exhibitions—but their impact on Hungarian culture and visual art was seismic, not unlike a scientific and technological revolution in spirit and effect.
Curators, Critics, Conversation
February 5 brings Lajos Tihanyi, the Restless Charmer—a joint guided tour by art manager Nóra Winkler and art historian Tünde Topor, teasing out persona and practice. The same day, Mama, Look! – The Beauty of the Body explores the idealized nude through the ages, spotlighting the refreshed exhibition Nude Sculptures from the Turn of the Century and what each era reflects back at the human form.
Make, Touch, Try
February 7 turns studio energy up with Create! – Naked Reality. The body has always been a central theme in art; here, visitors look from the 19th century to the present, then use their own bodies as both subject and tool—making body prints that literalize presence, gesture, and touch. That day also offers Adolf Fényes’s Art, a guided walk through The Images of Silence: Adolf Fényes (1867–1945) memorial exhibition and related pieces in the permanent collection.
Palace Secrets, Dome Views
On February 8, the Building Walk – From Crypt to Dome peels back the layers of the former royal palace. Explore the history of the Hungarian National Gallery and its collections, descend into the Habsburg Palatine Crypt, climb to the panorama-rich dome, and catch glimpses of lesser-seen architectural corners that carry centuries of stories.
Carnival Comes Calling
Finally, February 10 sweeps toddlers to the Venetian Carnival. Expect the city of elegant masked balls and processions translated into child-sized joy: carousel rides, dancing, and playful role-switching—ending with a flourish that sends them back into Budapest with carnival sparkle in their step.
