The Hungarian National Gallery, the country’s largest public collection dedicated to tracing the rise and evolution of Hungarian fine art, is opening its doors to a full slate of exhibitions, tours, workshops, family days, festivals, and concerts in early 2026. Expect permanent and temporary shows, guided tours in multiple languages, and hands-on sessions for kids—from creative clubs and art education classes to summer camps. Budapest is buzzing—and the Gallery is at the heart of it.
New Year, New Style: Fresh Eyes on Masters
January 21 kicks off with Intellectual Fitness – New Year, New Style, a gallery walk and studio session focused on artists who reinvented themselves across periods and movements. Think János Vaszary, József Rippl-Rónai, and Aurél Bernáth—artists whose canvases can look like multiple careers. After exploring the galleries, visitors head into the workshop to try one of Rippl-Rónai’s styles and create their own piece.
Kids Go Detective: Color It Again! Workshop
On January 21 and again on January 28, the Color It Again! museum workshop turns the Gallery into a mystery scene for young sleuths. Children track the secrets of Lajos Tihanyi, combing through dozens of works for hidden details that unlock a grand puzzle. The creative twist: they practice “forgery” paintings as part of the detective process, make composite sketches, and experiment with photo manipulation. The game ends when the big picture snaps into focus.
Culture Day at Home: Tihanyi Online Tour
January 22 brings an online guided tour through the Tihanyi exhibition—perfect for exploring from the couch while diving deeper into the painter’s world on the Day of Hungarian Culture. It’s a front-row view of bold forms and fearless colors without leaving home.
Tihanyi at 140: Defiant Forms, Daring Colors
The headline event is Defiant Forms, Daring Colors – The Art of Lajos Tihanyi, honoring the avant-garde painter’s 140th birthday. Opening January 23 with multiple guided tours continuing on January 29 and 31, and February 7 and 8, the comprehensive retrospective brings together key paintings, graphics, and personal objects. Deaf since childhood, Tihanyi conjured soundless worlds of color and shape, carving out a distinctive visual voice without academic training. His experimental language made him a formative member of the Nyolcak (The Eight) and one of the most original figures in 20th-century Hungarian art.
Family Focus: Faces and First Steps
January 24 serves up Adventure at the Gallery – Strange Faces, with guided tours tailored to two age groups: 6–9-year-olds at 10:30–11:15, then 10–13-year-olds at 11:30–12:15. The same day, art historian Gergely Barki lectures on Doubles and Gaps in Lajos Tihanyi’s Oeuvre, tracing where works echo, repeat, or vanish across the painter’s career.
Access for All: Sign-Language Tours
On January 25, the Tihanyi retrospective features a guided tour with sign-language interpretation, reinforcing the Gallery’s commitment to accessibility—especially poignant given Tihanyi’s own hearing loss and the way he turned silence into vision.
Winter Magic for Toddlers
January 27’s Toddlers – Snowflake Dance invites little ones into a winter wonderland inside the Gallery. It’s cozy gloves, warm boots, and a playful look at a white-clad forest and the hidden hues of a snowy landscape—singing, storytelling, and dancing with snowfall as the backdrop.
Mama, Look! The Silence Speaks
On January 29, Mama, Look! – The Silence Speaks explores how Tihanyi’s childhood illness and deafness shaped his life and art—revealing how a perceived limitation transformed into a singular advantage and a unique aesthetic.
Writer’s Eye and Subjective Takes
January 31 features Concrete Embroidery – Writer Rita Halász’s Subjective Guided Tour, a personal spin through the collections by a writer–art historian who fuses narrative and visual analysis in the galleries.
The Eight, in Focus
February 1’s pre-announced guided tour spotlights the Nyolcak (The Eight), the short-lived but seismic group initially known as the Seekers. They were active only from 1909 to 1912 with three joint exhibitions, yet their debut jolted Hungary’s cultural and artistic life like a scientific-technological revolution, propelling local modernism decisively into the 20th century.
Charmer in Motion: Dual Curator Tour
February 5 brings Lajos Tihanyi, the Restless Charmer, a joint tour led by art manager Nóra Winkler and art historian Tünde Topor. It’s a deep dive into personality, myth, and artistic evolution. The same day, Mama, Look! – The Beauty of the Body takes visitors to the refreshed turn-of-the-century sculpture showcase, Nude Sculptures from the Turn of the Century (Aktszobrok a századfordulóról), to trace shifting ideals of the body and beauty through time.
From Budapest to Abstraction
On February 6, writer and art historian Rita Halász guides Budapest–Berlin–Paris: Lajos Tihanyi’s Road to Abstraction, tracking how café culture, Berlin’s avant-garde, and Parisian modernism nudged the painter from figuration toward a language of pure color and form.
Create: Naked Reality
February 7’s Create! – Naked Reality workshop examines the human body from the 19th century to contemporary art, then flips the lens: participants use their own bodies as both subject and tool to make print-like body imprints. Also on February 7, tours unpack The Silence of Images. Adolf Fényes (1867–1945), a memorial show paired with related works in the permanent collection, spotlighting another master of mood and stillness.
Secrets of the Palace: Crypt to Cupola
February 8’s Building Tour – From the Crypt to the Cupola peels back the layers of the former Royal Palace. Attendees visit the Habsburg Palatine Crypt, step into the cupola for sweeping vistas, and explore hidden corners of the building while learning the Gallery’s story and its holdings.
Venetian Masks for the Tiniest Fans
February 10’s Toddlers – Venetian Carnival whisks families to Italy’s city of canals and masked balls. It’s carousel rides, dance, role-play, and the kind of joyous pageantry that makes a child’s first museum memories glow.
