A heavyweight of Hungarian culture, the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest charts the rise and evolution of the nation’s fine arts with permanent and temporary exhibitions, tours in multiple languages, themed programs, family days, festivals, and concerts. Kids aren’t left out: creative clubs, art education workshops, and summer camps turn the museum into a playground for young imaginations.
Rebel Forms, Daring Colors — Lajos Tihanyi at 140
From December 27 to 30, 2025, and again on January 9, 11, and 17, 2026, the Gallery celebrates the 140th anniversary of Lajos Tihanyi (Tihanyi Lajos) with a sweeping retrospective featuring his key paintings, graphics, and personal objects. Losing his hearing as a child, Tihanyi summoned color and shape from silence, crafting his own voice through paint. Without formal academic training, he forged an extraordinary visual language that made him a central figure of The Eight (Nyolcak) and one of the most original artists in 20th-century Hungarian painting. Several dates include guided tours, inviting visitors to dive deeper into his methods and legacy.
From Crypt to Cupola — Inside the Royal Palace
On January 3, 2026, the building tour opens the doors to the former royal palace’s secrets. Explore the Gallery’s own story and collections while stepping into the Habsburg Palatine Crypt, climbing to the cupola for breathtaking city views, and peeking into corners of the palace most visitors never see.
Kids, Detectives, and a Color Mission
The January sessions of Color It Again! — the museum’s hands-on workshop series for children — run on January 7, 14, and 21, 2026, setting up a playful investigation across the Gallery’s halls. Budding detectives chase down the mysteries of Lajos Tihanyi by closely examining dozens of his works and hunting for every hidden detail. The big reveal comes when the clues snap into place — puzzle solved. Creativity leads the casework: participants “forge” paintings for practice, sketch composite portraits, and play with photo manipulation to test how images can transform.
Look at that, Mom! — Sunny Days
On January 8, 2026, an English-language guided visit titled Sunny Days takes families into Pictures of Tranquillity, paired with a look at Adolf Fényes’s works alongside the Gallery’s permanent collection. It’s a soft landing for young museum-goers, with calm scenes and warm light as guides.
Italian-Language Highlights
Also on January 9, 2026: Visita guidata in italiano. Explore the major masterpieces of Hungarian art in Italian, from the Middle Ages to today, with a special focus on the 19th and 20th centuries. With a bit of luck, you might even bump into Dante among the paintings.
Adolf Fényes, Painter of Quiet Light
On January 10, 2026, a curated walk immerses visitors in the world of Adolf Fényes (1867–1945). Sunlight pierces even the humblest interiors; market scenes spark with fairy-tale life; and everyday moments matter as much as grand history. As the tour wanders through Fényes’s landscapes and intimate rooms, it asks how a peasant courtyard lives under the shadow of French Impressionism, what a veranda in Szolnok has to do with Paris, and what these more-than-century-old genre scenes reveal about the simple joys and sorrows of their time.
Tihanyi 140 — Curators, Historians, Writers
January 15, 2026, features Mariann Gergely’s curatorial tour. For decades, the Hungarian public knew Tihanyi’s works only from black-and-white reproductions; the artist’s estate reached the National Gallery from Paris 55 years ago by a decidedly adventurous route. That same day, Mom, look! — The Silence Speaks reflects on how Tihanyi’s childhood illness and resulting muteness shaped an unmistakably singular artistic vision. On January 16, art historian Gergely Barki leads an unconventional tour, The Person Behind the Palette, inside the Tihanyi 140 exhibition. On January 17, writer and art historian Rita Halász offers a subjective walk titled Embroidered in Concrete, weaving her own lens through the show.
Make It! — Abstract Experience Painting
Also on January 17, the workshop Make It! brings the freedom of abstraction center stage: color play, form, geometry, and sweeping brushwork. After a gallery walk with inspirations from Sean Scully, Judit Reigl (Reigl Judit), and Simon Hantaï (Hantai Simon) — all pivotal to abstract art — participants paint their own bold, nonfigurative canvases.
Nude Sculptures at the Turn of the Century
On January 18, 2026, a guided tour explores the nude — one of art’s oldest themes — through fin-de-siècle sculptures. The subject endures across art history, but its depiction shifts with each era’s ideals. The Gallery’s renewed 19th–20th-century nude sculpture display lays those changes bare.
Mind Fitness — New Year, New Style
January 21, 2026, spotlights artistic reinvention. Some painters, like János Vaszary (Vaszary János), József Rippl-Rónai (Rippl-Rónai József), and Aurél Bernáth (Bernáth Aurél), moved fluidly among styles; sometimes you wouldn’t guess two works came from the same hand. After a gallery stroll, visitors head to the studio to create, trying on one of Rippl-Rónai’s styles for size.
Every event takes place in Budapest, and together they paint a vivid portrait of a museum on the move — celebrating rebels, inviting families, and letting the city’s former royal palace breathe new stories into Hungarian art.
