[Peter W. Kessler]

All the time I was in college, Norman Rockwell was ridiculed by professors for portraying a false image of life in the United States.

I stopped them in their tracks by suggesting that Rockwell’s paintings portrayed a goal to be striven for.

Norman Rockwell is my all-time favorite artist. His paintings make me reach for the Kleenex.

[Huck]

the time I was in college, Norman Rockwell was ridiculed by professors for portraying a false image of life in the United States.

I'm betting it's not just because it's a "false" image, but because it's a positive, happy image. Same reason critics celebrate John Lennon and sneer at Paul McCartney. It has to be bitter and maladapted to be true art in their eyes. Anything cheery and sunny is automatically dismissed.