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Rockwell was a classically trained fine artist. That he made part of his living doing illustrations is little or no consequence. That he is well known and loved by at least four generations of Americans is. He work goes well beyond the SEP. His patriotic themes and his loving portrayals of life, country, family and God brought him plenty of work and commissions from many different quarters not unlike the patrons of other historically enduring artists. I can assure you that his work will be recognized by everyman for a long, long time to come even though elite 'artists' will continue to snort and pander their shabby dreck in urban galleries to well-heeled sophisticates for as long as the exchange of legal tender for excrement remains popular.

If I may continue to paint with a broad brush, I'd also say that most modern artists will vanish because 1) modern art is a fraud; 2) many chic 'artists' of this age have no talent - technical or otherwise; 3) art consumers will always be the last to say that the Emperor has no clothes and 4) precisely because they don't say anything worth knowing or remembering. Like some children, decadent art simply screams about pain and flings excrement. This is a good laugh in itself since these 'artists' are 99.9% Western and priveledged. As another real artist once put it - "It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Now, I know that you must actually believe what you say about 'artists' reflecting the world through their intellects, but I give no more credence to that text book answer anymore than I would trust 'journalists' to report the facts.

Finally, I guess I fail to see where you think I give Spielberg too much power. Personally, I don't give him, or Hollywood, a second thought and rarely any money. That he is one of a few in the film industry that can write his own ticket does say something about his power in that cloister and his ability to make a buck. No, for me, in the end, he is just another clueless boomer. The social disintegration I mention, however, IS the real legacy of the boomers. Spielberg just happens to be a pop-culture voice crooning the golden hits of that pop-culture g-g-generation.

One of the great things about time is that it wipes out mediocre art. And good modern art...Joyce, Stravinsky, Pollack...will endure. The bad stuff will vanish.

Do you actually spend much time in galleries or just read ARTnews? There are many, many artists today who are both technically accomplished and making art that is thoughtful. I would say the same thing is true for movies. However, both these artists and directors/writers tend to be on the second or third tier, which is how it should be since art has a limited audience.