In 1996 an idea came to Lichtenstein in a dream: an "obliterating brushstroke" that obscured or effaced an image. For his Brushstroke Still Life print series he decided to disrupt his images of tabletop still lifes with a variety of printed depictions of painted strokes. He took the conceit one step further by adding actual brushstrokes with acrylic paint to the first completed work in the series after the printing process was done. The white absence along the left edge of Brushstroke Still Life with Box is where Lichtenstein's hand-painted brushstroke was meant to be applied, had the artist not died before the work could be finished.
