20th and 21st century paintings and sculptures

During the 20th century, the Museum’s acquisition of contemporary works declined; works entered the collection only occasionally, through bequests and donations. From the 1950s onward, a few temporary contemporary exhibitions were held sporadically on the Museum’s premises. At first these were unofficial exhibitions lasting only a few days. Later, from 1983, artists were able to present their work in three or four exhibitions a year in rooms established on the ground floor. These artists usually donated a painting to the Museum, among them Tamás Kárpáti, Imre Szakács, Erzsébet Udvardy, Ilona Maros, and Mária Hertay.

Imre Magyarász, Piroska Szántó, Konstantina Kákonyi-Szántó, Péter Prokop, and Ernő Fischer left substantial selections of their works to the Museum. The collection also acquired, through purchase, one major work each by Ádám Kisléghi-Nagy and Gábor Atlasz in connection with the recent IEC 2020 event.