A giant of Hungarian art heritage, the Hungarian National Gallery throws open its doors in 2026 with a month buzzing with tours, workshops, festivals, concerts, and blockbuster exhibitions. Expect guided visits in multiple languages, family days, hands-on studios for kids, and creative sessions for grown-ups. The program spans from a spine-tingling palace walk to deep dives into Lajos Tihanyi (Tihanyi Lajos) and Adolf Fényes (Fényes Adolf), plus abstract experiments and toddler dance adventures. Here’s the January rundown in Budapest, date by date, with plenty to tempt every kind of art lover.
From Crypt to Dome: Explore the Royal Palace
2026.01.03. Épületséta – From the crypt to the dome. The former Royal Palace still hides surprises. This architectural walk introduces the National Gallery’s history and collections while taking visitors into the Habsburg Palatine Crypt, up to the dome with its sweeping panorama, and into other rarely seen corners of the building. Budapest.
Kids’ Detectives Chase a Modernist
2026.01.07., 2026.01.14., and 2026.01.21. Színezd újra! – museum workshop for children. January’s sessions turn the Gallery into a mystery scene. Young detectives follow the trail of Lajos Tihanyi (Tihanyi Lajos), combing through dozens of his works and hunting for hidden details. Alongside sleuthing, they try their hands at playful “forgeries,” build composite sketches, and experiment with photo manipulation. Budapest.
Look at that, Mom! Sunny Days
2026.01.08. An English-language guided tour through Pictures of Tranquillity, spotlighting Adolf Fényes (Fényes Adolf) (1867–1945) and related pieces from the permanent collection. Budapest.
Italian Tour Through Centuries
2026.01.09. Visita guidata in italiano. Discover the greats of Hungarian art from the Middle Ages to today, with an emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries—maybe even bump into Dante among the canvases. Budapest.
Tihanyi 140: Rebel Forms, Bold Colors
2026.01.09., 2026.01.11., 2026.01.17., 2026.01.23., 2026.01.25. The anniversary exhibition celebrates the 140th birthday of Lajos Tihanyi (Tihanyi Lajos) with his key paintings, graphic works, and personal items. Deaf from childhood, Tihanyi conjured color and form from silence and found his singular voice in paint. Without academic training, he forged an extraordinary visual language, becoming a defining member of The Eight (Nyolcak) and a distinctly original figure in 20th‑century Hungarian art. Guided tours offer fresh insight into his life and work. On 2026.01.25, the tour is made accessible with sign language interpretation. Budapest.
Adolf Fényes: Sunlight and Quiet Rooms
2026.01.10. A guided journey into Adolf Fényes’s (Fényes Adolf) world, where sunlight floods modest interiors, market scenes hum with life, and the everyday stands shoulder to shoulder with history painting. Expect stories about how a peasant yard sits in the shadow of French Impressionism, what binds a Szolnok veranda to Paris, and what century-old genre scenes still whisper about simple joys and sorrows. Budapest.
Toddlers’ Time: Snowflake Dance
2026.01.13. Tipegők – Snowflake Dance. Pull on soft mittens and warm boots: it’s a winter adventure for little ones. Find out how the forest dresses in white and what hidden colors live in snow. Sing, tell stories, and dance with the snowflakes inside the Gallery. Budapest.
Mama, Look! The Silence Speaks
2026.01.15. A family-friendly tour looks at how Lajos Tihanyi’s (Tihanyi Lajos) childhood illness and resulting deaf-mutism shaped his life and made his art uniquely powerful. Budapest.
Curators and Historians Take the Lead
2026.01.15. TIHANYI 140. Curator Mariann Gergely’s tour. For decades, Hungarians knew Tihanyi’s works mostly from black-and-white reproductions; 55 years ago, his estate made a dramatic journey from Paris into the Gallery’s collection. 2026.01.16. The Person Behind the Palette. Art historian Gergely Barki leads an unconventional tour of Tihanyi 140. 2026.01.24. Barki returns with the talk Two or None: Doublings and Gaps in Lajos Tihanyi’s (Tihanyi Lajos) Oeuvre. Budapest.
Make It: Abstract Experience Painting
2026.01.17. Abstract art hands the wheel to imagination—sometimes in crisp geometry, sometimes in free, surging brushwork. Meet giants of the field like Sean Scully, Judit Reigl (Reigl Judit), and Simon Hantai (Hantai Simon), then create your own striking abstracts after a gallery walk. Budapest.
Writer in the Gallery
2026.01.17. Concrete Embroidery. A subjective guided tour led by writer and art historian Rita Halász. Budapest.
Nudes at the Turn of the Century
2026.01.18. Aktszobrok a századfordulóról. A guided visit to the refreshed exhibition of late‑19th–early‑20th‑century nude sculptures, tracing one of art history’s oldest themes as it evolves to meet each era’s ideals. Budapest.
Mind Gym: New Year, New Style
2026.01.21. Szellemi fitnesz – New year, new style. Some artists—János Vaszary (Vaszary János), József Rippl‑Rónai (Rippl‑Rónai József), Aurél Bernáth (Bernáth Aurél)—shape-shifted across styles; sometimes it’s hard to believe two very different works came from the same hand. After a gallery stroll, the workshop channels one of Rippl‑Rónai’s modes into fresh creations. Budapest.
Online Tour: Tihanyi at Home
2026.01.22. Join an online guided tour of Tihanyi 140 on the Day of Hungarian Culture—learn more about his painting without leaving the sofa. Budapest.
Family Adventures: Strange Faces
2026.01.24. Kaland a Galériában – Strange Faces. 10:30–11:15 guided tour for ages 6–9; 11:30–12:15 for ages 10–13. Budapest.
