1/8
Brody Art Yard
Part gallery, part studio, part shop, and part cultural center, Brody Art Yard is a downtown nexus of creative energy, and here innovative art posters are made on-site with silk-screen printing or by using an eco-friendly Risograph machine. Everyone is welcome to view limited-edition posters by internationally renowned artists (like Vidam the Weird and Marcus Goldson), with almost all of them available for sale as unique-yet-affordable artworks.
2/8
Budapest Poster Gallery
Hungary’s premier collection of high-quality historic posters – some over a century old – is a treasure trove of fascinating regional visions of decades past, from colorful circus adverts to cartoonish public-service announcements discouraging alcohol consumption to a notice about Sopron’s Agricultural Book Exhibition of 1965. While some of these posters are worth thousands of dollars, many are relatively inexpensive when considering their rarity.
3/8
Budapest Szuvenir Poster Shop
Decorating an upstairs wall of central Pest’s Konyha eatery, the collection of Budapest Szuvenir Poster Shop encompasses numerous lighthearted looks at the Magyar metropolis as seen by modern local illustrators, including a scene of the Chain Bridge’s statuesque lions coming alive and roaming the roadway, and another of Heroes’ Square populated by anthropomorphic animals. After perusing the pictures, you can buy a poster from a Konyha staff member.
4/8
Cinemas
Countless movie posters continually arrive at Budapest’s cinemas, and several theaters dispose of these oversized adverts by offering them to the public for no charge. Some of the city’s leading art houses keep a box of rolled-up posters in the lobby for anyone to check out and take home, including Művész and Toldi; much of what can be found are posters for obscure independent films, but there may also be cool Hungarian-text posters for Hollywood blockbusters.
5/8
Ernst Galéria
As one of Central Europe’s most distinguished purveyors of museum-quality antiques and artworks, Ernst Galéria also maintains an impressive stock of vintage playbills for Hungarian films; the gallery’s management literally wrote the book about Magyar movie posters from the first half of the 20th century. Other intriguing historical pictures in the collection include propaganda images from the Soviet era and commercial posters for notable exhibits.
6/8
Insitu
This bijou boutique offers a huge array of locally made gifts like jewelry, toys, and T-shirts, along with creative international products and curiosities. Step up the spiral staircase here to discover the delightful posters of Little Hungaropedia – providing a playfully skewed look at the myriad traditions and stereotypical icons of Magyar existence – or check out some of Insitu’s other interesting wall coverings like a glow-in-the-dark star map.
7/8
Museums
The gift shops of several Budapest museums offer beautiful posters that not only replicate the priceless artworks on display, but also present fascinating images of Hungarian history. In the Kunsthalle cellar, the Art Box sells reproductions of renowned Magyar-made paintings; the Ludwig Museum shop often features portrayals of the most famous modern pieces in the permanent collection; and the National Museum proffers some old-time Budapest photos.
