The great discoveries of the turn of the 19th-20th centuries drew attention towards previously unknown or unappreciated, neglected worlds and cultures (the inner world of man and matter, primitive, childish, peasant cultures, the so-called minor arts), towards what had been the peripheries (in the geographical, scientific and artistic sense), giving western civilisation the possibility of rebirth. The discoveries also brought a golden age of Hungarian art in which art was fortunately intertwined with local conditions (the folk tale, folk art, dream and soul myths) and the fields of interest of the new social and intellectual movements (Budapest School).
The exhibition of the Freud Museum in London gives a glimpse into the work of four artists rooted in the 19th century art of Great Britain and having connections with the scientific themes of Freud, but each with their own individual style. We present the written and painted tales drawn from peasant art of Anna Lesznai who worked in the same circle as the young György Lukács and Béla Balázs, the author of Béla Bartók’s librettos; the opium dreams of Attila Sassy drawn in visions; a painting of Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka who studied the connections between myths and reality, spiritual and physical energies, individual being and the macrocosm; the “painted dreams” of Gulácsy who relived the past through artistic memory and created a world of his own. These works document how image and imagination become one, and created a new aesthetic and world view. The public can become better acquainted with the “Hungarian Pre-Raphaelite”, Lajos Gulácsy whose first big retrospective exhibition was held in the Ernst Museum in 1922.

The aim of the exhibition planned to mark the 60th anniversary of the Hungarian holocaust (parallel with the opening of the Holocaust memorial house in Páva utca) is the presentation by artistic means of the “other holocaust” that took place in the shadow of the genocide clearly explained for us all. As in the case of most countries, the Hungarian holocaust has its own special features and characteristics. But within the story of the sufferings of the ethnic groups designated as the primary enemy and target of violence, further sufferings can be differentiated. The different sections of the exhibition (Background – Facts – Memories) deal with the following themes: Hungarian Jewish holocaust, Roma holocaust, homosexual holocaust, holocaust of the disabled, women’s holocaust, holocaust of those persecuted for political reasons.
In view of the exhibition in Páva utca, the planned exhibition focuses less on the Jewish holocaust; instead it commemorates the holocaust of Romas, homosexuals, disabled and the politically persecuted, in part by presenting documents and also with the aid of art of the period. It is planned that together with the original documents, historical works of art, textual and visual memories, emphasis will be placed on contemporary works of art on the theme.

In conjunction with the 2004 Athens Olympics the Semmelweis Museum of Medical History and the Hungarian Sport Museum are opening a joint exhibition paying tribute to Hungarian Olympic athletes who were doctors parallel with or after their sport careers.