Authors: Basavaraj Kutni, Dr. Mohanrao B Panchal
Abstract: Using a practice-based analytical framework, this study explores the dynamic conflict between tradition and modernity in contemporary visual art practices in North Karnataka. Examining how historical visual languages are recreated within modern artistic discourse is made intriguing by the region's rich artistic legacy, which includes indigenous artisan techniques, mural traditions, and temple sculpture. This study presents tradition and modernity as interrelated and mutually transforming processes that influence artistic identity and creation rather than as antagonistic forces. The study emphasizes practice as a method of knowledge creation by fusing theoretical investigation with studio-based experimentation. The study investigates how artists interact with inherited cultural forms while reacting to global influences, technological developments, and changing socio-political realities. It does this by drawing on postcolonial perspectives and theories of cultural hybridity. The study illustrates various tactics of adaptation, reinterpretation, and resistance through case studies of particular artists and community-based practices in North Karnataka. These include the use of modern materials in conjunction with indigenous techniques, the conversion of traditional motifs into abstract or conceptual forms, and the integration of individual and collective memories into visual storytelling. The researcher's personal artistic practice, which serves as both method and result, is an important part of the study. The studio work illustrates the tension and balance between continuity and change through experimentation with mixed media, layering techniques, and material interventions. The resulting artworks exhibit a composite visual language that unites material and mental dimensions, local and global, and past and present. The results imply that North Karnataka's modern visual art actively redefines tradition as a dynamic, ever-evolving entity rather than passively preserving it. Artists are critical actors who reinterpret and reconstruct tradition to meet modern issues like identity, memory, and cultural sustainability rather than being passive inheritors of cultural traditions. The study also emphasizes the value of practice-based research in the field of art since it allows for a more profound comprehension of creative processes that cannot be adequately expressed through language alone. In the end, by highlighting regional viewpoints and stressing the importance of localized artistic activities in forming global visual culture, this research adds to the larger conversation on Indian contemporary art. It promotes a broader interpretation of modern art that acknowledges the fruitful interaction between tradition and modernity.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20093719
