USA Today makes a case for the Baby Boomers having a transformative effect on the art market and what is considered art:
Boomers also helped democratize art: They grew up believing anyone could become an artist, anyone could buy art or deal in art. It was no longer just the province of rich people, says Mark Quint, director of the Quint Contemporary Gallery in La Jolla, Calif. Thus, by the 1960s, he says, more young people from all backgrounds were opening up gallery spaces to show their friends’ art, even if they were operating on shoestrings.
“That opened up a whole new world to people looking at art, for people who wanted to show their art,” says Quint. “All of a sudden, New York became the center of the (contemporary) art world and a lot of that had to do with those young artists who were in their 20s at the time.”
Baby Boomers Helped Democratize Art (USA Today)