“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
— T. S. Eliot
In 2026, the first Baby Boomers turn 80. I’m following close enough to feel the significance.
This moment stands out after a lifetime in the art world. Much of today’s art market was built during the Boomers’ most active years.
A Generation Raised on Images
Boomers were the first to grow up shaped by television—witnessing the Vietnam War, the moon landing, and absorbing counterculture through music, posters, and magazines.
For many years, just three TV channels set the style and taste for millions.
Tastes develop gradually, shaped by repeated exposure.
Practical advice for pricing your art. No pitch. Just the good stuff.
In the 1970s and 1980s, as Boomers entered adulthood, two forces converged:
• Homeownership expanded.
• Disposable income grew.
Framed art became a middle-class staple. Poster stores flourished, framers opened everywhere, and affordable prints found eager buyers. Signed and numbered editions were in high demand, and even lesser-known artists found success as the print market expanded.
Today’s art infrastructure was designed for Boomers. Art.com showed art could be sold online well before social media.
None of this was accidental.
Broadcast Media and the Retail Ripple
Before cable and streaming, broadcast TV dominated culture.
A single image could influence hairstyles, fashion, lifestyle, and art preferences.
I saw this firsthand, selling ad space in art business magazines and organizing art and picture framing trade shows—the influence was unmistakable.
Set designers and writers reflected and caused change. Once visuals entered homes, niche interests grew quickly.
It was a tipping point you could see happening in real time.
After The Cosby Show featured a Black art gallery, Black art publishers and exhibitors surged. Participation remains vibrant.
Monica’s apartment on Friends sparked a similar surge for vintage posters—especially French lithographs and Art Deco. Demand for original graphics and reproductions grew fast and stays strong today.
To outsiders, these changes may have seemed sudden. But from within the industry, you could watch the shift take shape step by step.
A Different Media Environment, A Different Buying Rhythm
For Boomers, television brought focus and made framed art a natural part of home life. As they got older, their taste shifted—from vibrant concert posters to more refined and sophisticated imagery. Franchised poster shops in every mall, framers, and art retailers—whether in cities, suburbs, or small towns—made it possible for nearly anyone to bring art into their living spaces.
For Millennials, the internet changed the game by scattering attention across countless platforms, but it also opened new opportunities. Direct-to-consumer websites and social media transformed how people discover art, and online checkout made purchasing more convenient than ever before.
Two different media worlds.
Two different distribution systems.
Two different buying rhythms.
Same impulse.
Art follows attention.
When attention concentrates, retail organizes around it.
When attention disperses, distribution becomes more flexible.
Recent art sales data, like the annual update from Xanadu Gallery, show strong growth in online art sales. This matches what many artists are already feeling: the ways art is distributed are evolving, and so are the people buying it.
Reading the Signals
Today, fragmented media makes big cultural moments harder to spot. Excluding the Super Bowl, few events bring everyone together as broadcast TV once did.
But tipping points still happen.
Now, momentum builds gradually—through podcasts, social media, streaming, and online communities.
For artists, opportunity seldom comes in one wave. It starts as signals: more engagement, familiar images, rising search interest, or buyers echoing the same references.
The principle hasn’t changed.
Attention concentrates.
Interest follows.
Retail responds.
Recognizing these patterns makes change less mysterious and helps align your marketing with how people discover art today.
The goal isn’t to chase every trend—it’s to understand what’s changing and why it matters.
Connection: The Constant in Art Sales
Through all these cycles—broadcast, cable, online, social, and whatever comes next—one thing has remained constant.
Selling art is about connection.
Connection between artist and collector.
Connection between image and identity.
Connection between a moment in someone’s life and the work that finds its way onto their wall.
Over the years, I’ve watched channels and models come and go, retail categories rise and fall.
What endures is the human part.
The desire to live with something meaningful.
The satisfaction of placing the right piece in the right home.
The quiet thrill when a buyer says, “That’s exactly what I was looking for.”
The mechanics change.
The connection doesn’t.
That’s the steady ground, no matter how often media shifts.
See you next week.