The application of the Golden Ratio in the arts of early times is shrouded in doubt and debate due to the lack of documentation available from those times. However, its use has been documented in later art and architecture applications. The (probable) first was Italian Paul Serusier (1864-1927) who used the ratio in some works mainly as a check for his composition and invented shapes. The next circles of artists to use the ratio were the "Cubists". Cubism was a style named by Louis Vauxcelles, an art critic from the early 1900's. It relied heavily on geometric shapes and minimized emotional associations. Others followed and one of the strongest advocates was a Swiss-French architect and painter named Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (1887-1965). In his established years he went by Le Corbusier. His early works did not use the Golden Ratio as he had a negative outlook on the practice. In his later works in both art and architecture he used a proportional system of his own design called the "Modulor" that began with the proportions of a 6 foot human with upstretched hand in a square. The ratio of the man's height to the height at his navel was the Golden Ratio (Livio, 2003).
Others used the ratio in varying ways in their art and architecture but many in less direct ways. For example the contemporary artist Igael Tumarkin included the formula for Φ in one of his paintings. Debate and claims are often made about the inclusion of the ratio in different pieces of art. Some are known to be untrue but others are unknown (Livio, 2003).