Gabriele Gelatti

Statement

Despite the mystery on the nature of the human thought, still mind and nature share something: numbers. The primitive aspect of numbers as figures and patterns creates “sense” to the mind, and even “beauty”. Any creation of human thought faces the idea of beauty, even to refuse it. If a universal definition of beauty is still missing, it remains the most effective link between art and mathematics, demonstrating that “true is beautiful”. Golden Ratio and related Fibonacci numbers express the convergence of both mathematical and symbolic thoughts: the beauty of their contents can be experienced by the two points of view. The research of Gabriele Gelatti explores the archetypes of the symbolic thought to find new mathematical objects.

Artworks

“... the one which we maintain to be the most beautiful of all the many triangles (...) is that of which the double forms a third triangle which is equilateral (...) the triangle always having the square of the longer side equal to three times the square of the lesser side...” [Timaeus, 54 b]. Defining the “most beautiful” triangle Plato refers to Pythagorean theorem, that proofs the Golden Ratio construction in the image. We pose: φ = √(5/4) – (1/2). Let ABC be an half-equilateral triangle with |BC| = 1; |AB| = 2|BC| = 2; |AC| = √3. Then, by Pythagorean theorem we have: |FB| = |AC| = √3; |BE| = |BD| = √8; so that |FE| = √5. With |FA| = |BC| = 1, then |AE| = √5 – 1 = 2φ that is the Golden Ratio of |AB|.

This work of art is based on Golden Ratio and is composed by two images. The red and green painting is derived from a construction that has an aesthetic appeal in it's simplicity. Moreover, there is an important cultural content in this unexpected discovery of Golden Ratio, as it is based on a passage of platonic Timaeus mysteriously discussing the “most beautiful triangle”. The red and green colours create an high contrast vision effect, emphasised by the use of red and green glasses giving movement to the pattern and 3D experience. The purpose is to underline the psychic meaning of Golden Ratio in the research of beauty. The Golden Ratio construction is presented on a clay tile as a tribute to ancient mathematics.