All-over composition definition

A style of painting in which the entire surface of the piece is worked on in a more or less uniform way, and the normal way of treating composition (with the picture having a center, top or bottom) is not considered.  The term was originally used in response to Jackson Pollock's drip paintings.  Later the term was used to refer to other pieces that refrain from the usual compositional approaches.   In this way, the Impressionists "liberated" artists from a decided center of interest - and not necessarily to one of no composition - but rather to multiple or all-over points in the picture plane.