THE MAGAZINE
AI, Art, and Adorno
Can AI make music, or only imitate it? Drawing on Theodor Adorno’s critique of standardisation, this article suggests that algorithmic composition produces structure without development—and sound without artistic transformation. Read on for more.
Arnault vs. Pinault: When Luxury Empires Compete Through Art
The competition between Bernard Arnault and François Pinault no longer unfolds only through fashion houses and auction rooms. From Paris to Venice, their museums and collections reveal a deeper struggle for cultural influence—one that shapes how contemporary art is seen, valued, and remembered. Read on for more.
What Makes Edward Hopper’s Cities So Lonely?
Hopper’s paintings do not simply depict solitude; they make us experience it. We stand across the street, in the corridor, at the window, witnessing tension, isolation, and melancholy as the lives of others unfold before us. The question, then, is not why his figures appear lonely, but why looking at them makes us feel the same. Read on to find out.
From Berlin with Love: “Nureyev” - The Price of Freedom
The Staatsballett Berlin premiere of Nureyev could not have been more timely. From the repressive force of Putin’s regime to LGBTQ rights, exile, and the price of artistic freedom, this striking “biography ballet” traces the life of Rudolf Nureyev through memory, objects, and movement, revealing how politics continues to shape the legacy of one of ballet’s most uncompromising figures.
From New York with Love: Notes from the Underground
The New York subway is more than transit. From ceramic mosaics and modernist maps to hidden bronze figures and fleeting poems, Olivia Merola traces the art of moving underground through the city’s shifting narratives. Read on for more.
We Still Care: A Case for Ballet and Opera
Timothée Chalamet’s offhand remark that “no one cares” about ballet and opera sparked outrage, but it also exposed a deeper anxiety about their survival. As funding cuts, rising ticket prices, and ageing repertoires reshape the landscape of live performance, this piece asks what is really at stake when we dismiss these art forms, and why they still matter today. Read on for more.
From Seattle Grunge to the Opera Stage: “Last Days”
Can opera sound like grunge? At the Royal Opera House, Last Days, inspired by Kurt Cobain, replaces hierarchy with collaboration, silence with tension, and tradition with experiment, asking what opera can become when new voices reshape the stage. Read on for more.
Wayne McGregor: “Infinite Bodies” - Dance, Technology and the Future of the Human Body
At Somerset House, Infinite Bodies reveals how Wayne McGregor choreographs the space between dancer and machine. Through motion capture, robotics, and immersive sound, the exhibition asks what happens when the human body begins to think alongside technology.
The Trouble With Looking Back: Does Cancel Culture Extend to Artists of the Past?
At a time when anything can get you cancelled, the past, too, feels uncomfortable. Artists like Paul Gauguin sit at the centre of a growing debate: how do we confront troubling biographies without reducing their life’s work to a moral verdict? As contemporary values collide with historical realities, the question then becomes not whether we judge the past—but how. Read on for more.
"Every Faculty Used in the Worship of God": Ann Lee's Triumphant Choreography
In The Testament of Ann Lee, director Mona Fastvold tells the story of the Shaker founder through movement and music. Blending biography with experimental dance film, her work explores how Shaker worship transformed choreography into a form of spiritual devotion. Read on to learn the full story.
Bluegrass-Folk and Bach?
What happens when bluegrass meets Johann Sebastian Bach? In Bach: Sonatas and Partitas Vol. 2, mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile reimagines Bach’s iconic solo violin works through the lens of folk tradition. Far from a simple crossover, his interpretations reveal the depth, polyphonic richness, and rhythmic vitality of Bach’s music on a new instrument. Read on for more.
Why Are Egon Schiele’s Women So Uncomfortable to Look At?
For centuries, women in art were idealised, romanticised, and misseen. But Egon Schiele did something far more unsettling. He painted women not as muses or fantasies, but as psychologically present beings, fractured, guarded, and more existential than erotic. Read on for more.
An Underground Network Escape: The American Journalist Who Saved Europe’s Creatives from the Nazis
In 1940, American journalist Varian Fry arrived in Marseille with little more than a list of endangered writers, artists, and intellectuals. Over the following year, he organised an underground escape network that helped more than 2,000 refugees—including Marc Chagall, André Breton, and Marcel Duchamp—flee Nazi persecution. Operating from the Villa Air-Bel safe house, Fry and his collaborators forged documents, arranged visas, and navigated the fragile geography of occupied Europe to save some of the twentieth century’s most influential creative minds. Read on for more.
From London with Love: Is Lucian Freud Overrated?
What happens when Peggy Guggenheim sells your first paintings–and Sigmund Freud is your grandfather? Visiting Lucian Freud’s latest show at London’s National Portrait Gallery, “Drawing into Painting,” I went in curious and left underwhelmed. Read on to find out why.
Interview: Chloe Helimets, 16, Student at the Paris Opera Ballet School and Prix de Lausanne 2025 Finalist
From Prix de Lausanne finalist to student at the Paris Opera Ballet School, Chloe Helimets reflects on French technique, the legendary défilé at the Palais Garnier, and what it takes to refine speed, precision, and elegance at sixteen. Check out her exclusive interview with TWoA now.
Who Do You Dance For? Looking Into Degas’s Dancers and Ballet Itself
Were Degas’ dancers monstrous, animalistic social climbers–or misunderstood performers? TWoA reframes ballet in Degas’ oeuvre as a demanding art of movement, labour, and correction. It gives both him and his dancers the credit they are due. Read on for more.
What is Music?
Is music simply organised sound—or something more elusive? From John Cage to Christopher Small’s idea of “musicking,” we explore why the boundary between music and noise is less objective than we might hope. Read on for more.
From Berlin with Love: The Miraculous Return of a Cello Legend
Rain, empty seats, and a changed programme set the scene. What followed was a fragile, powerful encounter with Mischa Maisky—part concert, part reckoning with resilience, ageing, and what it means to return to music after the body almost gives in. Read on for more.
Singing for Peace in Jerusalem?
What happens when singing meets dialogue? Inside a Jerusalem youth choir where Israeli and Palestinian teens rehearse together, share their stories, and learn to stay in the room—especially when it’s hardest. Read on for more.
The Orchestra Does A Mic Drop: Examining Classical Pop
What happens when pop opens its doors to the orchestra? From ROSALÍA’s baroque-inflected “Berghain” to the symphonic experiments of Laufey and Cody Fry, classical pop is dissolving genre boundaries—and inviting new listeners in.