Top 3 exhibitions in 2022-2023

Check out the top 3 exhibitions of 2022-2023 that you should not miss if you are in Budapest.

The Painter-Poet: Gyula Tichy, the Master of Hungarian Symbolism
27 October 2022 – 12 February 2023

The works of English and Viennese Secession painters Aubrey Beardsley, Walter Crane, and Gustav Klimt served as influence for Gyula Tichy, a leading figure in Hungarian graphic art. His delicate draughtsmanship and artistic treatment of symbolism topics in his drawings, watercolours, linocuts, copper engravings, and tempera paintings quickly brought him success in his day. His 1908–1913 linocuts, which are among the most innovative works of Hungarian graphic art from that time period, are joined by prints and watercolours that are equally varied and eye-catching. Tichy’s body of work is a cohesive whole that addresses contemporary ideas and issues (such as gender roles, the contrast between urban and rural life, urban-related topics, and technological advancement) in allegorical form and in the Secessionist style, which is characterized by lines and ornamentation. A selection of sheets from the art collection of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts will be on display in addition to graphic and painted pieces from the collection of the Hungarian National Gallery.

2. Vaszary. The Well-known Stranger
15 September 2022 – 15 January 2023

János Vaszary, a well-known master of Hungarian fine art who worked in a variety of styles, will have a show of his works at the Hungarian National Gallery in the fall of 2022 to commemorate his 155th birthday. The seventy pieces on display include twenty-four canvases that have never before been seen by either the general public or the art world.

During the move-related preparations in 2016, the process of inventorying all the items still housed in the Hungarian National Gallery’s premises got under way. Then, in one of the vaults, two scrolls of canvases were found, each containing twenty oil paintings by Vaszary that had been hidden for many years. Since the “lost” pieces had never been seen by art historians previously and no copies of them were known even during the artist’s lifetime, it is likely that they were donated to the public collection straight from Vaszary’s workshop or his estate. The twenty-four most stunning and motivating canvases from the recent crop will be on display. From the artist’s early impressionist days to his expressive compositions, from works created in the Parisian Art Deco style to his renderings of the Danube Promenade and his seashore settings imbued with a Mediterranean flavor, the paintings span almost the entirety of the master’s career. Vaszary masterpieces from the museum’s own collection will be on show at the exhibition, together with lesser-known pieces lent from private collections that are thought to have been lost for a long time.

3. Ungarische Moderne 1910–1933
3 November 2022 – 6 February 2023
Berlinische Galerie, Berlin

The Berlinische Galerie, one of Berlin’s most renowned exhibition spaces and home to the city’s museum of modern art, will debut an exhibition of works by Hungarian painters who resided and worked there in the early 20th century. This will be the first in-depth exhibition devoted to Hungarian painters who spent some time in Berlin between 1910 and 1933, either permanently or temporarily, and it will feature the artwork they created or presented there. The first section of the exhibition will revisit the massive exhibition of Hungarian art that took place in the Berlin Secession in 1910, and the second section will feature a collection of pieces by artists who were active in Berlin during the years immediately following World War I and who belonged to various groups and styles. Lajos Kassák, along with László Moholy-Nagy, Sándor Bortnyik, and others, will symbolize the avant-garde art of the circle of the monthly MA [Today]. Visitors will be able to see artwork by painters like Béla Kádár, Hugó Scheiber, and Aurél Bernáth among the several Hungarian artists who displayed in the Der Sturm Gallery of Berlin. The artwork of József Nemes Lampérth, Lajos Tihanyi, and Noémi Ferenczy was on display in various galleries and exhibitions. The audience will also get familiar with architects, photographers, and filmmakers in addition to great artists. In addition to the works by Marcell Breuer, Éva Besny, and Miklós Bándy, there will be documentation highlighting the significant contribution that Hungarian artists made to the Berlin art scene.