Ettore Sottsass, the designer of the Olivetti Valentine, was described by fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld as “one of the design geniuses of the 20th century”. But the description he would himself prefer is “The godfather of Italian cool”.

Sottsass began life as an architect, but he promiscuously diversified into multiple areas of design: industrial products, furniture, ceramics, graphics, textiles and jewellery. He was one of the flag-carriers of Italian design at a time when it when it was Italy’s greatest export to the rest of the world.

He had a very successful collaboration with Olivetti, for whom he designed typewriters (as well as presciently stylish models of their early computers). Yet, he simultaneously designed things like earthenware pottery, inspired by a passion for all things Indian. 

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In the 1980s, Sottsass shifted his talents to furniture design, setting up a collective named the Memphis Group (after his friend Bob Dylan’s song, Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again). And there he created a line of radical post-modern furniture that was obviously inspired by his travels in South India – and the delightful architectural kitsch he had encountered there.

Many observers have remarked on the distinct similarities of Sottsass’s work with the geometries and splashy colours found in contemporary urban South Indian architecture. In fact, the French edition of Architecture Digest even did a photo essay pointing out the curious resemblance between Sottsass’s design and the urban architecture of the small town of Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu. But then, as the critic once remarked, Sottsass was always unabashedly dipping his pencils in the Ganges.

Or in the Kaveri, as the case may be.