The search for reality in painting in the context of ecocriticism

This thesis addresses the fundamental breaking points in the nature/human dichotomy. The Neolithic revolution, enlightenment thinkers and the industrial revolution have a human-centered perspective. This situation has led to the exploitation of nature. The unlimited use of nature for the benefit of humans for approximately 200 years has created an ecological crisis. This crisis and the criticism of the Enlightenment by some, such as Bacon and Descartes, gave birth to ecological policies at the beginning of the 20th century. Pioneering thinkers of ecological thought such as Bookchin, Lovelock, and Dubos realized this bad situation and offered various solutions according to their own ideologies. "Ecocriticism", which examines the nature-human relationship in the field of art and culture, is one of these ecological thoughts and is a system criticism by nature. In this thesis, where reality is also investigated, an artistic/intellectual quest has been adopted to seek and reveal the essence beyond a formal or methodological similarity. Within the scope of the thesis, only works in the painting discipline were selected, and contemporary art works from different disciplines were excluded. Seven questions were determined for the analysis of the selected paintings in an ecocritical context. The works were examined with these questions. It was determined that all of the works included ecological injustice and system criticism, and that the causes or results of the ecological problems in question were addressed. In addition, ecocentric painting and ecocriticism held a mirror up to society with the characteristics of art such as creating awareness, creating public opinion and offering solution suggestions, tried to emphasize the truth behind the visible and became the voice of nature. In this way, ecocentric painting and its ecocriticism played a vital role by creating a society where important decisions were demanded for ecological crises that could only be overcome with economic and political decisions. Keywords: Ecocriticism, Painting, Ecological crisis, Eco-theory, Reality, Nature/Human.