During the days leading up to the opening of the Denver Art Museum's new   Frederic C. Hamilton Building, the city seemed to turn itself over to the arts.

Between a talk by architect Daniel Libeskind and a host of parties and openings, Denver seemed to come alive with attention to Denver's vital arts community and growing sense of architectural maturity.

One of the high points was a reception at Emmanuel Gallery for something completely different: "Treasures Revealed: The Art of Hungary 1890-1956," an exhibition drawn mainly from the collection of Jill A. Wiltse and H. Kirk Brown III.

The show, which has its public reception Saturday, attracted DAM director Lewis Sharp and András Simonyi, the Hungarian ambassador to the United States, as well as representatives of Nancy G. Brinker, the former U.S. ambassador to Hungary. (A few works from Brinker's collection also are in the exhibition.)

Simonyi praised the Browns for their passionate drive to collect, but also spoke to the quality of the work made in his country over the past century. That this is the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution - as of Monday - did not go unnoticed, either.

Festivities aside, though, the show is what counts, and the quality and variety of work included make "Treasures Revealed" a definite must-see in terms of the fall season.

Wiltse and Brown, who also collect work by Herbert Bayer that has fueled two exhibitions at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, became intrigued by art made in Hungary more than a decade ago. They happened upon the book Standing in the Tempest: The Hungarian Avant Garde, by Steven Mansbach, a professor of the history of 20th-century art at the University of Maryland at College Park.

Brown notes that over a nine-year period, they made 20 trips to that country, found an adviser and began buying paintings, works on paper and decorative arts objects, from chairs to ceramics.

At Emmanuel, guest curator Shanna Shelby, former registrar for the Museo de las Americas, has used a thematic approach to present the work, rather than chronologically or by artist. Thus landscapes and cityscapes predominate on one wall, nudes and figure studies on another. This offers an opportunity to compare and contrast, but not particularly follow, as artists in that country became influenced - and also began influencing - the various styles that evolved in the early 20th century.

From the intense, saturated colors of the Fauves, to the fractured planes of Cubism, it's all here, with enough examples of work by some artists - especially the highly talented painter Armand Schonberger and ceramists Géza Gorka and Livia Gorka - to get a sense of their work.

Ordinarily, I'd say that this work needs more room to breathe. But given the format of the gallery and the fact that this show counts as the fall's true unexpected pleasure, that is not an insurmountable barrier to enjoying what the collectors have done.

And that is to bring a part of the world to Denver, in the form of dozens of striking works of art.

Treasures Revealed: The Art of Hungary 1890-1956

• What: Works from the collections of Jill A. Wiltse and H. Kirk Brown III, and the Hon. Nancy G. Brinker

• When and where: Opening reception 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, through Nov. 2; Emmanuel Gallery, on the Auraria Campus

• Of note: A catalog is available

• Information: 303-556-8337; www.emmanuelgallery.org

Mary Voelz Chandler is the art and architecture critic. Chandlerm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2677