[python] Pythonic way to check if something exists?

This is pretty basic but I was coding and started wondering if there was a pythonic way to check if something does not exist. Here's how I do it if its true:

var = 1
if var:
    print 'it exists'

but when I check if something does not exist, I often do something like this:

var = 2
if var:
    print 'it exists'
else:
    print 'nope it does not'

Seems like a waste if all I care about is knIs there a way to check if something does not exist without the else?