The Untold Narrative of How India Influenced the Work of Ettore Sottsass

As a South Asian artist whose work has been described as both ephemeral and abstract, those who enjoy my work often draw comparisons to the iconic style of the Memphis design movement with its geometric shapes and playfully bright colors. But, in reality, I find more inspiration in my eclectic Tamilian lineage–and upon taking a closer look, it became evident that so did the collective’s founder, Ettore Sottsass.

In the city of Tiruvannamalai, pilgrims flock to the Annamalaiyar Temple, where they ritualize their devotion to Shiva, the Hindu god of time. Every year, the city is flooded by tourists who travel throughout the subcontinent and across the sea to pay penance. While Tiruvannamalai is known as a spiritual epicenter, what is lesser known about this town in Tamil Nadu, is that it is speckled with eccentric and gaudy architecture.

Drawing on these legacies of architectural designers, South Asian-British artist Shezad Dawood, shares that South Asian designers “brought something unique to the modern project, in terms of adapting it to the climate and artisanal legacies of South Asia, in the way they consider the landscape, as much a part of the building as the building itself. I think there’s something very poetic and beautiful about the way they consider ‘negative space’ and the need for a more vernacular expression on a human scale.”

Colorful homes beckon asymmetrical shapes, juxtaposed against the brazen Indian landscape. While many of these homes may not have intentionally been built to aesthetically provoke, the architecture of this bustling South Asian city greatly inspired one of the most radical founding fathers of Postmodernism. Look no further than Sottsass’s early ceramics, produced between the late 1960s and early 1970s–the Indian Memory Series along with the Tantra and Yantra series trace back to his first exploration of India, in the autumn of 1961. Following that first trip, Sottsass made annual visits back to the South Asian region and these expeditions were succeeded by outpourings of creative work. 

Where the postmodernist style of Memphis is famed for its amalgamation of anticonsumerism and multiformity, much of this aesthetic can be said to be a collective transmutation of his obsession with not just pop art and the Austrian Jugendstil movement, but also the sights and sounds of India. As Barbara Radice, a design critic and Sottsass’s spouse of over 30 years, once shared, “Ettore found India because he needed India… He looked for it and found it instinctively, as animals sniff the air and go to water.” The influence is remarkably clear. With his intentional naming of objects memorializing Indian emperors to his early translations of Sanskrit texts, Sottsass was pulled in by the esotericism and mysticism of Hinduism and South Asia.

This growing fascination with India was, of course, not an isolated one. In fact, many design pioneers, from Charles and Ray Eames to Le Corbusier, are noted to have spent a considerable amount of time in the subcontinent, traveling, collecting and pulling ideas. The iconic pepper mills and corkscrews that Sottsass designed for Alessi in 1989, which are available to purchase at SSENSE today, were born out of the 1988 furniture exhibition “Bharata,” leading to a collaboration with Indian craftspeople, which subsequently inspired Twergi’s turned wood object series. 

Why then, does the impact of the South Asian aesthetic usually get left out of most contemporary design conversations? Eastern culture and philosophy has contributed to the quality of life experienced by the West, yet maintains its position as an “underdeveloped world.” Evidently, it’s time for the design world to acknowledge its other influences. Shezad stresses that “it is very important to see the ‘modern’ as a two-way street, with South Asia having as much of an influence on Le Corbusier and others such as Neutra and Louis Kahn.” 

Perhaps this reframing of the narrative, to include South Asian histories in the celebration of present day enjoyments of design, will allow for more possibilities and potentialities in the art world as a whole. Mansi Shah, an Indian American artist based in Los Angeles, California, believes “there will certainly be more depth” that comes with this recognition. For some, like Italian design producer Ivan Mitteon, who recently released the book Sottssass/Poltranova 1958 - 1974, the influence is more trivial. “Eastern philosophy has been very important in the ’60s and ’70s, as it was seen as a new way of dealing with contemporary issues,” he explains. “I don’t know if it’s still very much the case now.” 

This response begs the question, does the design world, like most institutions in the Global North, have a whitewashing problem? Sophie Collé seems to think so. The Brooklyn-based designer, whose wiggly work pulls directly from elements of Memphis, argues that “design is very much still carrying a colonial mentality.” As she further elaborates, “It’s very obvious and painful to see entire nations being erased through the design lens that we have here specifically in the States.”

Sottsass’s explicit reference to South Asia can therefore be applauded–his willingness to directly claim this influence with transparency was, in a way, a very radical move given the context of the surrounding, extractive culture. Harry Chadha, a New York-based designer with Sikh ancestry agrees, emphasizing that “the larger idea of the recognition of source material is something most critics and observers of design are slowly–or quickly–realizing in the contemporary conversation as designers that continue to shelter these far and wide influences will have to be transparent about them.”

Design, like all forms of art and culture, is inherently political and is reflective of power dynamics that exist in the daily lives of everyday people. As we enter AAPI Heritage Month, reorienting toward a design framework of South Asia that is less to do with poverty and deficit and more to do with abundance is helpful. It is not surprising that the Eastern influence on contemporary design is largely left out of modern design conversations, as this is true for how most of the developed world has taken from the developing. However, in both honoring the work of Memphis and remembering the contributions of South Asian Americans, there is a chance to rethink the conversation.

But strides toward reframing are actively being made. MoMA’s latest exhibition on the decolonial architecture of South Asia provides an opportunity for design lovers to dive into the rich knowledge that is the aesthetic of the subcontinent. For younger designers like Mansi and Harry, this representation is beyond aesthetic and offers a unique and hopeful opportunity to proliferate design knowledge and histories with intention and commemoration. As Harry concludes, “There’s enough of this source material out there that influence would be taken via palettes, materials, and textures, regardless of who’s performing design with them. Who knows, maybe we’ll see more Sikhs at the Serpentine.”