Cookie Mueller and Vittorio Scarpati at Studio Voltaire, London

Cookie Mueller and Vittorio Scarpati Studio Voltaire, London — Installation view of “Putti’s Pudding: Cookie Mueller and Vittorio Scarpati,” 2017, at Studio Voltaire, London.

ANDY KEATE

Pictures at an Exhibition presents images of one notable show every weekday.

Today’s show: “Putti’s Pudding: Cookie Mueller and Vittorio Scarpati” is on view at Studio Voltaire in London through Sunday, November 12. The exhibition presents work from the collaborative project Putti’s Pudding, a book by writer and actor Cookie Mueller and artist Vittorio Scarpati that was produced before they both died from AIDS-related complications in 1989. (Mueller and Scarpati were married up until their deaths.) Scarpati created drawings for the book, some of which are currently displayed in London, while Mueller contributed accompanying text.

Below is an excerpt from Mueller’s introduction to Putti’s Pudding, in which she discusses her final months with Scarpati:

Out of sheer boredom with the time passing, Vittorio asked for pens and pads to draw. With his indomitable spirit and vitality he set about rendering his reality through his talent. With a sensitivity and wisdom few possess, and with his amazing sense of humor never failing him, he put himself through his art.

Even the doctors were incredulous at this man’s strength of will. They told me that most other patients in similar circumstances would have given up after two months.

Through these drawings he has conveyed all of this and made it manifest. Seen chronologically this is a journey of extreme pain made bearable by his sublime imagination. It’s the story of a trip along the paths of Vittorio’s fantasies and for a man who hasn’t felt the warmth of sunlight or the sweet breezes of fresh air for four months, there’s a lot to create in the inward eye. From limitations come finally an emancipation, a disengagement with restraints. From the realization of the depths of his plight, comes a reach toward a pinnacle of inspiration.

Here is the work of not only a brave and courageous man but the true mytho-poet, the rhapsodist, the utopian.

There is nowhere to go but up.

Vittorio Scarpati, Untitled, 1989.
Who/Fragile/So what?

ANDY KEATE/COURTESY THE ESTATE OF COOKIE MUELLER

Vittorio Scarpati, Untitled, 1989.
So I am all ready to go...
His portable pigs have sucked everything from him, yet they’re his friends, his companions, his intelligent friends. Pigs only live in mud because that’s the only place they’re allowed to live. – Cookie Mueller, Putti’s Pudding, 1989.

ANDY KEATE/COURTESY BILL STELLING

Vittorio Scarpati, Untitled, 1989.
What a dream
He is outside in the mean cold looking in, watching the hearth blazing with flames. Fire is the life giver. Warmth floods into every pore of the body, and the chill, the creeping blue chill has left. The life force returns. The lungs are safe. Dreams set you free… I arrived at the edge and jumped off. – Cookie Mueller, ‘Putti’s Pudding’, 1989.

ANDY KEATE/COURTESY MAX MUELLER

Vittorio Scarpati, Untitled, 1989.
The television blew up. To me seems like it is symbolic. He is not worth the paper he is on/Ugly/Hey this is ugly really/Yes with all the good stuff there is to do, this is ugly

ANDY KEATE/COURTESY MAX MUELLER

Vittorio Scarpati, Untitled, 1989.
IN THE ETERNITY OF MY LIFE Such an ugly drawing for such a beautiful sentence. Redone everything must be redone In the eternity of my life – in the eternity of my life

ANDY KEATE/COURTESY MAX MUELLER

Vittorio Scarpati, Untitled, 1989.
It could be so easy, but when I look at the Pope everything becomes much much more difficult to love but then it changes. “On the rise” eastern drawing. Don’t be scared we are all blessed by the presence of an occasional good soul, help yourself, help someone else, your life will recharge itself

ANDY KEATE/COURTESY MAX MUELLER

Vittorio Scarpati, Untitled, 1989.
The next thing to do is to color in

ANDY KEATE/COURTESY MAX MUELLER

Vittorio Scarpati, Untitled, 1989.
NON WORKING. NON WORKING.

ANDY KEATE/COURTESY THE ESTATE OF COOKIE MUELLER

Vittorio Scarpati, Untitled 1989.
The same. Mostly disgusting.

ANDY KEATE/COURTESY MAX MUELLER

Vittorio Scarpati, Untitled 1989.
And the angel says: see all this is yours anyhow so don’t force yourself. And all this is yours because you are part of this. But can I have wings? Dunno! Who knows who knows.

ANDY KEATE/COURTESY MAX MUELLER

Vittorio Scarpati, Untitled 1989.

ANDY KEATE/COURTESY BILL STELLING

Vittorio Scarpati, Untitled 1989.

ANDY KEATE/COURTESY MAX MUELLER

Vittorio Scarpati, Untitled, 1989.
Since HIV has decided to bless me, my life for good and for bad has had a series of uncontrollable spins, in which I continue to rotate complacently. Yes, I’m your steamroller and it flattens me.

ANDY KEATE/COURTESY THE ESTATE OF COOKIE MUELLER