A giant of Hungary’s cultural scene, the Hungarian National Gallery traces the birth and evolution of the country’s visual arts with a vibrant mix of permanent and temporary exhibitions, guided tours in multiple languages, themed programs, family days, festivals, and concerts. Kids get a full creative slate too, from studio clubs and art education workshops to summer camps—all at Budapest’s landmark on Castle Hill.
Jan 21: Mental Fitness – New Year, New Style
Start the year by following artists through radical changes in style. The walk highlights painters like János Vaszary, József Rippl-Rónai, and Aurél Bernáth—masters who reinvented themselves so boldly that paintings from different periods barely look like they’re by the same hand. After the gallery tour, the workshop dives into hands-on creation inspired by one of Rippl-Rónai’s styles.
Jan 21 & 28: Color It Again! Kids’ Museum Workshop
January’s sessions turn children into detectives. The gallery’s halls hide mysterious stories, and the sleuths-in-training chase the secrets of Lajos Tihanyi. They’ll inspect dozens of works, spot hidden details, and, if all goes well, crack the case. Creativity is part of the investigation: kids will craft “forgeries,” sketch composite portraits, and experiment with photo edits.
Jan 22: Online Tour of the Tihanyi Exhibition
Explore from home with a live online tour and dive deeper into Tihanyi’s painting on the Day of Hungarian Culture.
Jan 23, 29, 31; Feb 7, 8: Rebel Forms, Bold Colors – Lajos Tihanyi
Marking the 140th anniversary of Lajos Tihanyi’s birth, this major retrospective showcases the painter’s most important canvases, graphics, and personal objects. Deaf from childhood, Tihanyi found a unique voice in painting, forging color and form out of silence. Without academic training, he developed a striking visual language that made him a leading member of the Nyolcak (The Eight) and one of 20th-century Hungarian art’s most original figures. Multiple guided tours throughout late January and early February unpack his path from figurative work to an autonomous language of pure color and shape.
Jan 24: Adventure in the Gallery – Unusual Faces
Two age-tailored tours get kids looking closely at portraits and character: 10:30–11:15 for ages 6–9, and 11:30–12:15 for ages 10–13.
Jan 24: Doubles and Gaps in Tihanyi’s Oeuvre
Art historian Gergely Barki’s lecture, Kettő vagy egy sem. Duplázások és hiátusok Tihanyi Lajos életművében, probes repetitions, variations, and missing links across Tihanyi’s body of work.
Jan 25: Accessible Guided Tour with Sign Language
The Tihanyi anniversary show includes a guided visit interpreted in sign language, opening up the artist’s radical visual vocabulary and personal journey.
Jan 27: Toddlers – Snowflake Dance
Bundle up for a winter wonderland in the galleries. Little ones explore how forests turn white and what colors still shimmer beneath the snow. Expect songs, stories, and a twirl with the snowflakes.
Jan 29: Mama, Look! – When Silence Speaks
A family-friendly focus on Tihanyi’s life and art, shaped by deafness caused by childhood illness. How did an apparent limitation transform into a powerful, singular vision?
Jan 31: Concrete Embroidery – A Writer’s Tour
Writer and art historian Rita Halász leads a subjective, literary-inflected tour titled Betonba hímezve, weaving personal readings into the exhibition experience.
Feb 1: The Eight – Scheduled Guided Tour
Connected to the Tihanyi retrospective, this tour spotlights the Nyolcak (The Eight). Brief but explosive, the group—initially calling themselves the Keresők (The Seekers)—worked together from 1909 to 1912. Their three exhibitions shook Hungarian cultural life like a scientific and technological revolution, accelerating the arrival of modernism.
Feb 5: Tihanyi, the Restless Charmer
Art manager Nóra Winkler and art historian Tünde Topor co-lead a tour titled Tihanyi Lajos, a nyughatatlan sármőr, tracing the artist’s charisma, restlessness, and the bold turns of his career.
Feb 5: Mama, Look! – The Beauty of the Body
A guided visit to the revamped Nude Sculptures from the Turn of the Century (Aktszobrok a századfordulóról) explores a perennial theme: the human body. Each period’s depiction reflects its ideals and social vision.
Feb 6: Budapest–Berlin–Paris: Tihanyi’s Road to Abstraction
Rita Halász returns to chart how café culture at the fin de siècle, the Berlin avant-garde, and Parisian modernism shaped Tihanyi’s style. Follow his journey from figurative compositions to a pure language of color and form.
Feb 7: Create! – Naked Reality
From the 19th century to today, artists reimagine the body. This workshop pairs a gallery walk with participatory making: your own body becomes both subject and tool as you create body prints that bring the theme home.
Feb 7: The Art of Adolf Fényes
A guided tour through Pictures of Silence. Adolf Fényes (1867–1945) (A csend képei. Fényes Adolf) and related pieces in the permanent collection reveals the quiet power and poetic restraint of one of Hungary’s key turn-of-the-century painters.
Feb 8: Building Tour – From Crypt to Dome
The former Royal Palace is full of marvels. Discover the National Gallery’s history and collections, step into the Habsburg Palatine Crypt, ascend to the dome for jaw-dropping panoramas, and explore hidden corners of this monumental complex.
