In 2025, the Artist of the Nation Award Committee awarded the honour to György Geiger trumpeter, János Kiss ballet artist, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation supporting the renewed Hungarian Dance University, and Vice President of the Hungarian Academy of Arts (MMA); Anna Kubik, actress and full member of the MMA; and Simon Serfőző, writer and poet, also a full member of the MMA. The awards were presented on Wednesday in Budapest at the Hungarian Academy of Arts (MMA) headquarters, located in the Pesti Vigadó.
János Kiss, Hungarian ballet artist and director, recipient of the Kossuth and Liszt Ferenc prizes, an honoured artist, and a permanent member of both the Győr Ballet Company and the Troupe of the Immortals, has now been named an Artist of the Nation. We wholeheartedly congratulate him!
“The four outstanding artists who from today may bear the title of Artist of the Nation have long been in our hearts,” said Balázs Hankó, Minister of Culture and Innovation, adding, “and while that is right, it is not enough.”
Balázs Hankó explained: “The task of the Hungarian Academy of Arts is to select for recognition those whose creative work is accompanied by an exemplary life path, whose acknowledgment is of utmost importance. This entails and rewards an artistic career of high quality, integrity, values, patriotism, and exemplary conduct.”
According to the minister, despite the threats of war and economic difficulties, Hungary spends twice the European Union average on supporting the arts. This, he explained, is because for Hungarians, culture is not merely entertainment or a pastime, but also a source of “national-strengthening and nation-unifying replenishment.” He pointed out that the international reputation and strength of Hungarian culture was most recently demonstrated by László Krasznahorkai’s Nobel Prize.
“In awarding the title of Artist of the Nation, we recognize those artists who have transformed their talent into mastery and vocation, their vocation into service, and their service into a national value,” said Attila Turi, President of the Hungarian Academy of Arts (MMA) in his welcoming remarks.
He stressed that art is fundamentally the pursuit of balance – between humanity and nature, body and spirit, freedom and discipline.
“Proportion is not a limitation, but harmony – the deepest law of art. To recognize the parts within the whole, and the relationship between the details, this is what builds harmony,” added Attila Turi.
In 2013, at the initiative of the Hungarian Academy of Arts (MMA), the Hungarian National Assembly established the Artist of the Nation Award to honour outstanding and highly respected figures of Hungarian artistic life, and to ensure them dignified living conditions. The award represents the highest state recognition in the field of art in Hungary.
At any given time, there may be no more than seventy Artists of the Nation. The award is presented annually around November 5, the date marking the “birthday” of the public body of the Hungarian Academy of Arts.
The Artist of the Nation Award Committee is chaired by Attila Turi, architect and President of the Hungarian Academy of Arts (MMA). Its members include János Aknay, painter; Zoltán Rátóti, actor; Margit Ács, writer; Péter Blaskó, actor; István Ferencz, architect and designer; Lajos Koltai, film director and cinematographer; Zsuzsa Péreli, visual and textile artist; Ferenc Sapszon, choir conductor; Ferenc Sebő, performer and folk music researcher; and Zoltán Zsuráfszky, dancer and choreographer.
