The effects of the concept of decay on art of painting from modernism to the present in the context of existential nihilism

As a result of social developments, from the beginning of the modern process the displacement of the world and humanity in the center of the universe, the declaration of God's death and the world wars that took place have pushed humanity to question the concept of meaning more broadly and deeply. From the answers given, existential nihilism can be considered as the philosophical equivalent of humanity's sense of decay. As a result of the inseparable connection of the art of painting with the notion of meaning, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the concept of decay on the art of painting from Modernism to the present in the context of existential nihilism. The research and conceptualization of the concept of decay, the types of nihilism in the connection of decay and philosophy and especially existential nihilism, it's history and antinatalism as a result of it and the process from modernism to the present in the context of painting, constitutes the scope of the thesis. In the study, phenomenological, ethnographic and autoethnographic designs were applied with the qualitative research method. In the research, it was seen that decay was reflected in the art of painting in different ways, and it was concluded that existential nihilism was also the subject of many artists who could be directly related or associated.