A new year, a packed calendar, and a gallery that refuses to sit still. The Hungarian National Gallery, the country’s largest public collection dedicated to the birth and evolution of Hungarian fine arts, rolls into 2026 with family days, festivals, concerts, workshops, bilingual guided tours, and blockbuster exhibitions. Kids get their share too, with creative clubs, art education sessions, and summer camps. Here’s what’s on from late January to mid-February in Budapest.
For the Littlest Art Lovers
January 27 kicks off with Toddlers – Snowflake Dance, a cozy winter romp through the gallery’s spaces, where little ones sing, tell stories, and dance among snowflakes while discovering the colors tucked into snowy landscapes. On February 10, Toddlers – Venetian Carnival swaps snow boots for masks, whisking families to Venice’s world of elegant parades and whirl-of-merriment, complete with role play and crafting a gleaming carnival mask to take home.
Hands-on Workshops for Kids
January 28 opens Color It Again!, a museum workshop that turns children into detectives. The mission: track the secrets of painter Lajos Tihanyi. Young sleuths sift through dozens of works, hunt for hidden clues, and—if they crack it—reveal the full picture. Making is part of the chase: they counterfeit paintings, create a composite portrait, and experiment with photo manipulation. The workshop returns February 4 and 11 with a time‑travel theme, exploring how people lived long ago through paintings, genre scenes, portraits, and vintage photos. Expect drawing, painting, comics, and original storytelling inspired by the art on view.
Lajos Tihanyi Takes Center Stage
Few artists cut a figure as boldly as Lajos Tihanyi, a defining member of the Nyolcak (The Eight) and a restless force in the early 20th‑century Hungarian avant‑garde. Marking the 140th anniversary of his birth, the gallery launches a major retrospective: Rebellious Forms, Bold Colors – The Art of Lajos Tihanyi. Running across multiple dates—January 29 and 31; February 7, 8, 11, and 12—the show gathers his essential paintings, graphics, and personal objects. Deaf since childhood and self‑taught, Tihanyi sculpted soundless space into color and form, crafting a fiercely individual visual language that made him one of the most original voices in Hungarian painting.
Guided Tours, Deep Dives, and Expert Voices
On January 29, Mama, Look! – The Silence Speaks unpacks how Tihanyi’s childhood condition, once seen as a disadvantage, became a catalyst for artistic distinctiveness. The same day, a guided tour of his exhibition uncovers the painter’s groundbreaking evolution.
January 30 brings Phenomenon: That Was Lajos Tihanyi, led by art historian Blanka Bán. Expect sharp questions: What career did his parents imagine for him? Why did he paint on both sides of certain canvases? What was his personality like to contemporaries—and how did he portray them? Follow his journey from fauvist color to nonfigurative abstraction.
January 31 offers Concrete Embroidery, a subjective tour by writer and art historian Rita Halász. On February 6, Halász returns with Budapest–Berlin–Paris: Tihanyi’s Road to Abstraction, tracing how café culture, the Berlin avant‑garde, and Parisian modernism reshaped his style—from figurative compositions to a pure language of color and form.
On February 1, The Eight – Scheduled Guided Tour explores the short‑lived but seismic group that first appeared as the Seekers (Keresők). Active only from 1909 to 1912, with three joint shows, they jolted Hungarian cultural and visual life much like a scientific or technological revolution.
There’s an online option, too: tour the Tihanyi exhibition from home on February 3, and dive into Adolf Fényes’s show online on February 10. French speakers get their turn on February 8 with Budapest–Berlin–Paris. The Art of Lajos Tihanyi (L’art de Lajos Tihanyi), a guided tour in French.
Adolf Fényes and the Human Figure
February 7 highlights The Pictures of Silence. Adolf Fényes (1867–1945) Memorial Exhibition, plus related works in the permanent collection, via a guided tour. That same day, Create! – Naked Reality looks at depictions of the human body from the 19th century to the present, then turns visitors into makers: participants produce body imprints as both subject and tool. On February 5, Mama, Look! – The Beauty of the Body explores how representations of the nude mirror the ideals and human images of their time, with a stroll through the refreshed exhibition Nude Sculptures from the Turn of the Century.
Concerts and Architecture Walks
Music lifts the dome on February 1 with a Sunday Choir Concert: the Albert Schweitzer Chamber Choir and Orchestra perform in the museum’s first‑floor cupola hall, promising a richly varied sonic backdrop to the art. On February 8, Building Walk – From the Crypt to the Dome reveals the wonders of the former Royal Palace: descend into the Habsburg Palatine Crypt, take in panoramic views from the dome, and weave through other remarkable corners while learning the story of the Hungarian National Gallery and its collection.
More Tours, More Tihanyi
February 5 pairs art manager Nóra Winkler and art historian Tünde Topor for Lajos Tihanyi, the Restless Charmer, a joint tour that peels back the layers of charisma and creative drive. Additional guided visits of the Tihanyi retrospective continue on February 11 and 12, perfect for anyone who missed earlier dates—or wants a second look with fresh insights.
Where to find it all? Budapest. The Hungarian National Gallery keeps the city’s art pulse racing, from toddlers’ first snowflakes to a master’s march into abstraction.
