Rockwell's work was dismissed by serious art critics in his lifetime.
Many of his works appear overly sweet in the opinion of modern critics, especially the Saturday Evening Post covers, which tend toward idealistic or sentimentalized portrayals of American life.
This has led to the often-deprecatory adjective, "Rockwellesque". Consequently, Rockwell is not considered a "serious painter" by some contemporary artists, who regard his work as bourgeois and kitsch.
Writer Vladimir Nabokov sneered that Rockwell's brilliant technique was put to "banal" use, and wrote in his book Pnin: "That Dalí is really Norman Rockwell's twin brother kidnapped by Gypsies in babyhood".
He is called an "illustrator" instead of an artist by some critics, a designation he did not mind, as that was what he called himself.

In his later years, however, Rockwell began receiving more attention as a painter when he chose more serious subjects such as the series on racism for Look magazine.
One example of this more serious work is The Problem We All Live With, which dealt with the issue of school racial integration.
The painting depicts a young black girl, Ruby Bridges, flanked by white federal marshals, walking to school past a wall defaced by racist graffiti.
This painting was displayed in the White House when Bridges met with President Obama in 2011.

Rockwell's work was exhibited at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2001.
Rockwell's Breaking Home Ties sold for $15.4 million at a 2006 Sotheby's auction.
A twelve-city U.S. tour of Rockwell's works took place in 2008.
In 2008, Rockwell was named the official state artist of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The 2013 sale of Saying Grace for $46 million (including buyer's premium) established a new record price for Rockwell. Rockwell's work was exhibited at the Reading Public Museum and the Church History Museum in 2013-2014.