As aggressive as the music can become, it can be understood as the most serene sort of modern composition. How easy going is it to endless strum a single chord and find it again only an octave away? As easy as letting a candle burn.

In the same way minimal, distorted guitar music might be understood as unheroic, focusing on a mundane, sedentary object, like these candles, fits into  Richter’s ouvre without too much force. In his painting of individual body parts or recreation of a photograph, out of focus, Richter isn’t just refusing to tell viewers what he intends verbally, he’s almost asking us to concoct a story to go along with his work. Is that stray mouth attached to his wife? Why is that dog so prominently figured in a paintings composition?

Skirting the issue, one might believe it’s difficult for the sake of being difficult. And maybe, that can be tied back to Richter’s growing up in post-World War II Germany. He lived through the, though preceding, time which gifted the world of cinema with Rainer Werner Fassbinder and the New German Cinema. Those filmmakers sought to render real German life in moving images. Richter, by contrast desired to relate moments in time from life, but refused to do all the work for viewers.

Again, there’s a narrative out there which can easily be assigned to these paintings of candles. Maybe it has to do with a couple dining in a romantic setting. Or maybe there’s a blackout and the lights simply don’t work. It’s this sort of up in the air possibility that may have attracted Thurston Moore to using Two Candles as the cover for 1988’s Daydream Nation. Even if it’s not, the ability for each and every viewer to understand the image independent of some dogma inflicted by the painter is a welcome relief.

In its attempt to levy the open world on unwitting gallery walkers, Richter’s a success. However, the image probably won’t become popular enough to be donned on walls – at least not unless it’s accompanied by a Sonic Youth logo. Despite that, though, Two Candles can hold a viewers attention. Painted so to hide the process, it’s difficult to understand immediately if it’s a painting of a photograph. And while it might be bothersome to many who come to the realization that its something of a hoax, it’s supposed to be – a surprisingly beautiful one.