Well his work is very dated. It speaks to a time and place in our country that doesn't exist anymore, far from it, and maybe idealizes a time that wasn't all it's made up to be. Maybe my biggest drawback from him, and your take on his work, is that art for the sake of the state...that's just disgraceful. We can learn from it, evolve from it, take cues as artists, but to just blatantly rely on paintings for a slice of life of the good ol' USA? It's just lame. It's very kitsch. I love his style, love his images. But it's pretty much irrelevant to the artistic discourse of today. And the pool of normal people it applies to and speaks to narrows every day.