Tünde Sipos: 

Golden Ratio - The Secret Language of Harmony

Spoken on October 9, 2026, at the opening of the exhibition titled Golden Ratio, organized by the Painting Department of the Hungarian Association of Fine and Applied Artists on the occasion of Hungarian Painting Day, at the Eötvös10 Gallery.

„I’ll admit, if it’s about some topic related to mathematics, I instinctively feel a distance. Even if it’s wrapped in gold paper, it still seems distant, foreign. Because what exactly is the golden ratio? Essentially, it’s a mathematical ratio system: a whole divided into two parts relates to the larger part the way the larger part relates to the smaller part. This is the harmony of asymmetry. Pure philosophy, pure mathematics. But why do we need the golden ratio, and what relevance does this concept—and thus the exhibition—have today? It’s nothing other than humans’ desire for harmony.

As I rushed around the exhibition yesterday, hurrying, snapping photos, looking for connections, I have to admit, because of the large scope and diversity, I felt that I wouldn’t find that harmony right now. The hurry bothered me, my thoughts were sprawling everywhere; you could write a book about all these fantastic works and their relationships. I saw that many works were composed according to the golden ratio, and I discovered the fantastic geometric ingenuity at first glance. Wonderful perspectives and dimensional depths open up on two-dimensional surfaces. Through them, you can step into the field of artistic spaces. I found the questions and challenges interesting. I felt I could understand the associations approaching from a distance. I sensed that the artist community also longs for harmony. I perceived what gold means as an eternal symbol and what a cut signifies – as a common point and meeting. But at the opening, I didn’t want to be too general or superficial. The exhibition curator, Magda Vágó, was still working here with her colleagues, and they did a great job – maybe she even noticed my awkwardness.

And suddenly I just saw Csaba Szegedi's painting. Allow me the freedom to extract his work without any personal acquaintance. [...] So I paused in front of the composition: yes, there is the gold, as a divine quality, radiance, glory. There is the familiar spiral scroll: symbol of the divine order appearing in nature. And the entire background, divided into proportions according to the rules of perspective, deepened multiple times, rotated, playfully turning my gaze as a viewer. I paused in front of a picture in which, apparently, its creator finds joy. And feeling this, I also found my own joy because of it. Then I read the title: Adoratio Divinam Proportionem. I only know a few Latin words, I understood and indeed believe the words Deus and Adoratio, but something even more familiar struck me. Well, this is the book in which Leonardo da Vinci's numerous drawings, anatomical studies, architectural typographies appeared! Szeged's currently visible composition is a tribute to the book *De divina proportione* (On the Divine Proportion), written by the famous Renaissance Franciscan friar and mathematician Luca Pacioli between 1496 and 1497. This book discusses the golden ratio (the divine proportion) in both mathematical and aesthetic terms. It is still applied today in geometry, visual arts, perspective, and architecture. That's why everything contained in it is still valid today.

 Linking to the idea of timelessness, I also want to mention that this specific golden ratio has an approximate number: phi, which is 1.618. This is a perfectly harmonious proportion. Interestingly, we are created in such a way that what the human eye instinctively perceives as beautiful, balanced, and harmonious almost always follows the φ ratio. But this numerical ratio also determines the most diverse growth patterns in nature. It can be found in the spiral of galaxies, in the arrangement of sunflower seeds, in pine cones, in the structure of snail shells, and even in the aesthetic proportions of the human body and face. So, the golden ratio is divine, human, and natural. Remember, a Franciscan monk wrote this influential book dissecting the golden ratio. A Franciscan, who, raised in the teachings of Saint Francis, following his path and carrying his perspective with him, developed his work. This year we celebrate the 800th anniversary of Saint Francis' death. He is the saint who glorifies God for the creation of the world. For the Earth, where everything is originally in harmony and order, and humans also have their place in it. Because that makes it whole. In the wonder of the parts mutually depending on each other to form a living whole. These thoughts accumulated in him regarding the exhibition. And what did I understand from it? That the point is not that every part—every work, every person—is the same, but that there is a connection between the parts. That in the world there is a great organizing principle at work, behind which there are patterns, proportions, relationships, and repetitions.

How a number can be represented, and how it becomes a feeling.

The great eras of art history all deal with the study of proportional systems, relationships, and understanding the world. But one important realization of modern and contemporary art is that a work of art isn’t necessarily interesting because it’s perfect. It can be fragmented, asymmetric, unfinished. We can find examples of all of these in the exhibition. And there is harmony here despite the diversity, because the parts relate to each other. We humans instinctively seek harmony, because then we feel that the world is in order. When we come down here to the Basement Gallery, we’re looking to find that feeling of things being in order. Did you manage to find it? If so, take it with you, and I wish that everything could simply be in order according to the harmony of the golden ratio.”

(Tünde Sipos, art historian)