As usual, the art business (like all business) primarily benefits the businessmen. Most of the people profiting from the "art market boom" are collectors and o

As usual, the art business (like all business) primarily benefits the businessmen. Most of the people profiting from the "art market boom" are collectors and other businessmen who buy art from unknown artists at rock bottom prices and resell them once the artist becomes famous (usually but not always after the artist's death). In this situation the artist gets pennies on the dollar (if he's very lucky, as many artists don't manage to sell their work at all). Some very few artists are lucky enough to even be alive by the time their art becomes highly coveted, and then are lucky enough to have enough business acumen (or lucky enough to partner with a scrupulous and competent enough agent) to capitalize on their fame, and actually make enough money from art to actually quit their job waiting tables or driving taxis and devote their energies full-time to making art. Some very few of those very few might even become rich. But I would not call that a "great time to be making art". The overwhelming majority of artists in the US do not make nearly enough money to even reach the disgracefully low poverty line, much less be able to survive solely by selling their art or profit much from this "booming art market".