A powerhouse of Hungarian visual culture, the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest dives into 2026 with a packed program of exhibitions, guided tours, hands-on workshops, family days, festivals, and concerts. Alongside permanent and temporary shows, visitors can join tours in multiple languages, while kids get creative clubs, art-education sessions, and summer camps—all designed to make the country’s largest public fine art collection feel alive, current, and welcoming.
Spotlight: Lajos Tihanyi at 140
The marquee event is a sweeping retrospective celebrating the 140th anniversary of Lajos Tihanyi’s birth. The exhibition gathers his key paintings, graphics, and personal objects, tracing a life and style forged in the aftermath of childhood deafness. From silence, Tihanyi conjured audacious color and form, crafting a singular visual voice without academic training. His originality propelled him to the forefront of the Nyolcak (The Eight) group and made him one of the most distinctive figures in 20th-century Hungarian painting. Several guided tours run throughout—on January 29 and 31, and February 7, 8, and 11—each unpacking new facets of his evolution from fauvist vibrancy toward abstraction.
Accessible, Expert, and Personal Tours
On January 25, an accessible guided tour with sign-language interpretation opens the Tihanyi program to all. January 30 brings “Phenomenon: This Was Lajos Tihanyi,” led by art historian Blanka Bán, who explores why the artist painted on both sides of some canvases, the adult life envisioned by his parents, how contemporaries saw his personality—and how he saw them in his portraits. January 31 features a subjective tour by writer and art historian Rita Halász, “Embroidered in Concrete,” who returns on February 6 to track Tihanyi’s path—Budapest to Berlin to Paris—toward a pure language of color and form. On February 5, art manager Nóra Winkler and art historian Tünde Topor co-lead “Lajos Tihanyi, the Restless Charmer,” framing his artistic restlessness and charisma within the avant-garde scene.
Nyolcak and Avant-Garde Shockwaves
On February 1, a scheduled guided tour shifts focus to the Nyolcak (The Eight), the group that debuted as the “Seekers” and shook Hungarian cultural life between 1909 and 1912 with just three joint exhibitions. Their impact echoed like a scientific and technological revolution—brief but seismic—setting the ground for Tihanyi’s experiments and the broader modernist turn.
Kids’ Adventures: From Snowflakes to Sleuthing
The gallery leans into playful learning. January 27’s “Toddlers – Snowflake Dance” bundles up little ones for a magical winter journey through forest whites and hidden colors—singing, stories, and snowflake dancing included. January 28 launches the January “Recolor It!” kids’ museum workshop as a detective quest through Tihanyi’s works: junior sleuths examine dozens of pieces, hunt hidden details, and reveal the final picture. Along the way, they “forge” paintings, craft phantom portraits, and tinker with photo manipulation.
Family Programs: Silence Speaks, Beauty of the Body
On January 29, “Mama, Look! – Silence Speaks” considers how Tihanyi’s childhood illness and resulting deafness became creative fuel, making his work exceptionally distinctive. On February 5, “Mama, Look! – The Beauty of the Body” moves to the renewed “Nude Sculptures from the Turn of the Century” display, showing how each era’s ideal shapes how artists depict the human figure, especially the nude—one of art history’s oldest themes.
Choral Echoes Under the Dome
February 1’s Sunday concert brings a varied musical program to the first-floor dome hall, where the Albert Schweitzer Chamber Choir and Orchestra perform. It’s an acoustic counterpart to the visual fireworks on offer and an invitation to experience the building’s resonant grandeur.
Walks, Architecture, and a Panoramic Crown
On February 8, “From Crypt to Cupola” reveals the building’s secrets: the Habsburg Palatine Crypt, the panoramic dome, and other hidden architectural corners of the former Royal Palace. It’s a journey through the gallery’s history and collection framed by some of Budapest’s most astonishing views.
Adolf Fényes: Silence in Images
Another thread highlights Adolf Fényes. On February 7, a guided tour navigates “The Images of Silence. Adolf Fényes (1867–1945) Memorial Exhibition” and related works in the permanent collection. An online guided tour on February 10 lets audiences dive deeper from home, opening up Fényes’s quiet, concentrated vision with digital ease.
Make, Move, Mask
February features hands-on sessions. On February 7, “Create! – Naked Reality” explores the body in art from the 19th century to the present, ending with participants making body prints—turning their own bodies into both subject and tool. For toddlers, February 10’s “Venetian Carnival” whisks families to Venice’s gleam and mischief, with rides, dancing, role-play, and an essential finale: crafting a decorative carnival mask.
Recolor It! Returns: Time Travel for Kids
The “Recolor It!” workshop returns February 4 and 11 to ask how people lived long ago and what pictures say about the past. Through paintings, genre scenes, portraits, and old photos, kids peek into daily life—objects, clothes, games, and dreams—then draw, paint, make comics, and invent their own stories inspired by the art.
Join from Anywhere
Can’t make it to Buda Castle? February 3 offers an online guided tour of the Tihanyi exhibition, and February 8 adds a French-language tour, “Budapest–Berlin–Paris. The Art of Lajos Tihanyi,” for Francophone visitors. From sign-language access to toddler dances, from crypt to cupola, the 2026 program maps a living museum—rooted in Hungarian art history, open to all, and in constant, creative motion.
