Art of the Golden Ratio

Mathematics is full of mystery and beauty. Few mathematicians would disagree with that. Most people would agree with the mystery part but not the beauty. There is however one mathematical object that has often been associated with beauty and aesthetics, at least by artists. That object is an irrational number called the golden ratio. It is believed by some that a piece of art that exhibits this ratio in some way is more aesthetically pleasing.

In a painting this could be as simple as making the ratio of the width to height equal to the golden ratio. In architecture it could mean making the dimensions of a room agree with the golden ratio. Whether these beliefs are true or not, is not for us to say.

What we have found, and what this book is about, is the fact that the golden ratio does indeed encode many intricate patterns that can be turned into interesting drawings. We have collected 360 of these drawings together in this book. This is an art book meant to stimulate your creativity and imagination. There is no mathematics required.

We have included two appendices that contain a very short explanation of some of the mathematics behind the golden ratio and how the images are created. More detailed information on how to create the images can be found in our book "Pattern Generation for Computational Art".