Ontology and aesthetic of silence in figurative European painting

The sounds that surround our lives today have almost made us forget what silence is. Although there is no absolute silence experience as in John Cage's experiment, there are experiences of silence that occur when we appreciate and become aware. Throughout history, 'silence', which has been seen as a prerequisite for self-listening, meditation, contemplation, dreams and creativity, has been discussed in many different disciplines, especially religion, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, metaphysics, ontology, phenomenology, and is also a common practice in many fields in the art world. It has found a place for itself as a form of expression and a field of experience. It is not possible to talk about the tradition of 'silence' as a genre in western painting, it attracted the attention of many painters in different periods and was discussed in their paintings. Even though abstract paintings are the most defined as 'silent' among painting genres, the phenomenon of 'silence' in figurative paintings emerges with a multifaceted nature. In this thesis, it is argued that 'silence' in figurative paintings provides rich types of experience with an aesthetic character and suitable for ontological evaluation. The scope of the thesis is limited to the 'Western' painting tradition. Within the scope of the research carried out in four sections, the relationship between the experience of silence and aesthetic experience in figurative western painting and the way of existence were examined. First of all, the meaning and context of silence and its relationship with sound were questioned, and the silence approaches of thinkers who were interested in the concept in the history of thought were included. In addition, the theoretical development of the concepts of ontology and aesthetics was included in the research, and it was evaluated how the existential possibility of silence became visible in figurative painting, whether the experience of silence is a part of the aesthetic response to the work, and it was concluded that this experience as a field of subjective experience, is an inseparable part of the aesthetic response. In the last part of the study, the works of painters who reveal the presence of silence in figurative western painting as a 'serial' in their works, which are perceived as silent, are examined and these works; a limited sample was presented by categorizing them in three different groups as landscape, still life and human figures. In the selected examples, content and analytical analysis were made in line with the aesthetic and ontological theories that shape the perception of silence. Within all these studies, domestic and foreign books, articles and theses have been used, and the aesthetics and ontology of the silence phenomenon in figurative paintings have been evaluated and the result has been reached. With this research, it has been tried to strengthen the weakening nature of the world of sounds that surround our age by contributing to the discussion of 'silence' in art with figurative painting. Key Words: Silence, Sound, Ontology, Aesthetics, Figurative Painting.