Museum of Fine Arts — Attraction in Budapest

The Museum of Fine Arts, opened in 1906, is among Europe’s most prominent museums. The Museum displays the treasures of international and Hungarian art spanning from ancient times to the end of the eighteenth century. After the most comprehensive reconstruction project in its history, the museum re-opened at the end of 2018. The permanent exhibition includes: Ancient Egypt, Classical Antiquity, European Art 1250 -1600, European Sculpture 1350 – 1800 and Art in Hungary 1800 – 1800. The number of artworks found in the museum today exceeds 120 thousand. A temporary exhibition opened on 5 April 2019 (to be closed as of 30. June 2019) is the first to bring Michelangelo’s art to the Hungarian public. Triumph of the Body: Michelangelo and Sixteenth-Century Italian Draughtsmanship displays eighty drawings by Michelangelo and his most talented contemporaries, including thirty of the master’s nude studies loaned from the world’s most prestigious collections. Michelangelo’s drawings allow an insight into the creative process of the master’s celebrated works, since he prepared all his creations on paper. Unfortunately a fantastic 2022. autumn exhibition of Matisse is already closed. Visitors were invited on a chronological journey through Matisse’s almost sixty-year-long oeuvre, which can be described as a series of renewals. After his early period, defined by looking for his own artistic voice and hallmarked by works such as Woman Reading La Liseuse] from 1895 and Pont Saint-Michel (ca 1900), the artist’s spectacular painting of pure colour unfolds, which was the main aspiration of his Fauve period. These pieces were represented here by one of the masterpieces, Le Luxe I (1907), made in the period following the “Fauve scandal” of 1905, and by Algerian Woman, painted two years later. During World War I Matisse’s light-infused paintings with a vivid palette were replaced by darker-toned compositions with a geometrical character and at times balancing on the verge of abstraction. The chief motif of this period is the window, which simultaneously connects and separates the interior and the world outside, forming a passage between the layers of space. One of Matisse’s most enigmatic window depictions is Glass Door in Collioure [Portre-fenêtre à Collioure, which were also shown at the exhibition. The museum is easy to approach. The admission tickets are usually moderately priced. Credit cards are accepted. Museum Shop and Fine Art Bistro (and connected restrooms) are available...

This used to be a great place when I was younger, now it is just a nuisance. I tried to visit the Csontváry exhibition and boy, it was a waste of time. Instead of an exhibition with limited entries per hour, there was a huge crowd in there leaving zero chance for a good, relaxed view of the artworks. At the same time, they don't allow your water bottle in there, which makes a thorough visit on a hot day impossible (the rooms are only cooled to a degree that protects the artworks, not the people when a crowd is crammed in). One would like to sit down and reflect for longer....it is impossible. People going there also became rude and just "ticking the box"....money making machine, instead of a real art museum now. Entry fee was around 16 EUR and for that price, the whole experience was just a nightmare. I suggest higher entry fees and less guests/hour. I'd also bring back checking tickets better at the entrance and then allowing people into the WC area without ticket checking every time (that's also where the cloak room / lockers are...so if someone wants a sip of water during and exhibition review now, they need to leave, go down to the locker room and then go back..while having their tickets checked every damn time.. incredibly stupid). At the same time the people checking how big of a bag someone can still bring in is also ridiculous....they claimed that my small backpack which did fit the box they kept there, except the area where the straps are (literally a small, city bag for daily short trips) was a no-go as I they claimed I could easily destroy artworks (specifically with my water bottle as earlier there were people who threw water on AW and destroyed it), yet they allowed people with bigger side bags (2-3 times the size) in and so many people that it made impossible to even move around properly. I sincerely think that increasing entry fees would weed out people who want to do damage, but would allow artwork friends to visit in a relaxed manner. If this won't be the case, I'm not going ever again, no matter what temp...

The building and the exhibited pieces are, of course, wonderful. However, the quality of the services provided is getting worse and worse seemingly by the month. To elaborate, I visited a limited exhibition. On our way in, there's a box where you need to measure your bag, and if it doesn't fit, you can't bring the bag inside. Fair enough, except seemingly all the guards are on a power trip and decide who can bring their bag in just by looking and rudely arguing. I saw the guard not bothering to look at someone with a big bag letting them in, only because he was already giving sh*t to someone else for a much tinier bag. If you already have a measuring box, please, use it instead of relying on elderly white men on a power trip.The guided tour - that I didn't attend - was very disturbing, the lady speaking was so loud, her voice instantly ruined the atmosphere of the exhibit. In a museum, I'd expect to be fairly quiet to enjoy the art in peace, but this ruined that experience. Why can't they manage a voice record guided tour or something so others wouldn't be disturbed, I have no idea. Minor detail that they couldn't bother to put the type of paint and canvas used beneath the names of the paintings that was just strange, I'd had to look it up. The art it mostly worth the visit, but brace yourself for the utter lack of...