all-over painting

All-over painting refers to the non-differential treatment of the surface of a work of two-dimensional art, for instance a painting. This concept is most popularly thought of as emerging in relation to the so-called "drip" paintings of Jackson Pollock and the "automatic writing" or "abstract calligraphy" of Mark Tobey in the 1950s, though the applicability of the term all-over painting would be wider than that. "All-over painting" is not a formal style of painting and the term does not represent an "art movement." Some painting under the heading color field painting displays the "all-over" painting style. Such a painting would fail to treat the top, for instance, differently from the bottom; the left than the right. Uniform treatment of all sections of the surface are the hallmark of all-over painting. All-over paintings would lack a dominant point of interest, or any indication of which way is "up." Some paintings by Cy Twombly have had this term applied to them.{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O5-alloverpainting.html |title=all-over painting Facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about all-over painting |publisher=Encyclopedia.com |date= |accessdate=2012-07-16}}[http://www.enotes.com/oxford-art-encyclopedia/all-over-painting ] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091007141533/http://www.enotes.com/oxford-art-encyclopedia/all-over-painting |date=October 7, 2009 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.artprofessor.com/art-movements/all-over-painting.php |title=All-over Painting |publisher=Artprofessor.com |date= |accessdate=2012-07-16}}{{cite web |url=http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/Al.html |title=ArtLex's Al-Am page |publisher=Artlex.com |date=2007-02-16 |accessdate=2012-07-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120705050409/http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/Al.html |archive-date=2012-07-05 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web|url=http://www.artnet.com/library/00/0019/t001940.asp |title=Directory of Art Services and Resources |publisher=artnet |date= |accessdate=2012-07-16}}

Clement Greenberg cited Janet Sobel's as the first instance of all-over painting he had seen.{{cite web|author=ROBERTA SMITHPublished: February 15, 2002 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/15/arts/art-in-review-janet-sobel.html?pagewanted=1 |title=ART IN REVIEW; Janet Sobel - New York Times |work=Nytimes.com |date=2002-02-15 |accessdate=2012-07-16}}