In an effort to understand the formation of the artist’s role in society from the perspective of the artists in relation to the founding of the State Art Council (Statens konstråd) during the period 1936-1946, this thesis studies the formation process and central problems of the Swedish Artists’ Association (Konstnärernas riksorganisation, K.R.O.). Using the analytical concept of representation as a base for the methodological framework, the thesis explores material including meeting protocols, letters, transcribed debates and the union members’ journal Medlemsbladet, as well as several Swedish daily newspapers. While the role and importance of K.R.O. in the 1930s and 1940s have been treated parenthetically in most prior historical writing regarding the relationship between artists and the welfare state, this thesis argues that the first decade of K.R.O’s history can shed light on important themes in the historiography. It argues also that several common assumptions about the organization need to be reconsidered, including the notion that K.R.O. was constituted with the primary task of proposing candidates for the State Art Council. The need for an artists’ union had existed prior to the formation of the State Art Council, and K.R.O. should be regarded in light of a longer history of attempts to organise artists on a national level. These prior experiences informed the artists’ considerations about how representation, in the political sense of the concept, should and could be achieved for the organisation’s claims to legitimacy towards the state and the Swedish artists. Likewise, the legitimacy of the state’s initiative hinged on the success of the organization’s claims to representativity.                   By analysing two central problems connected to the state’s and other actors’ involvement in the Swedish cultural life and social reformist claims - wartime taxation of artworks and the system of art exhibitions -  this thesis argues that the commitment and enthusiasm regarding the changed structures within Swedish cultural life, which usually is ascribed to the artists during the period, has been inordinate. Whereas the state’s new involvement and the formation of K.R.O. can be seen as initiating the process of professionalizing the occupation of artist, the experiences of other actors not heeding their claims of expert knowledge during the organization’s first ten years highlighted the need for the artists to advance their social position.