Not to mention that the art world has fads and fashions like any other. Representational art was on the outs in the '40s and '50s -- all the cool kids were doing abstract expressionism. Rockwell's paintings tell a story, sometimes a very simple one, and often a warm and sentimantal one -- none of which were in favor at the time.
But as time has gone on, Rockwell, along with other storyteller-painters like Edward Hopper, and N.C. Wyeth, has come into greater favor among collectors and "serious" art scholars alike. Much like Dickens, dismissed in his own time as a writer of popular serials, is now taught as one of the greatest Victorian storytellers.
No matter how much time has gone by, Thomas Kincade will still be a hack.
< backing slowing away, putting on crash helmet >
I absolutely agree. All that nasty commercial "country" kitsch is to Rockwell as Kincade is to the Hudson River School.