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.

This thesis analyses the public art competitions arranged by the Public Art Agency Sweden (Statens konstråd) 1937-1970 and the discussions about public art competitions in within the art field of the 1940’s, -50’ and -60’s. The main material for this analysis has been the protocols of the Public Art Agency and the annual paper of the Swedish Artists' National Organization (Konstnärernas riksorganisation). The theoretical and methodological framework is based on Pierre Bourdieu’s understanding of the art field, and institutions as agents within that field. I also use Foucauldian discourse theory as another theoretical tool to understand the power relations between these institutions in the art field. My aim has been to understand why there were competitions for public art commissions – the purposes, the processes, the discussions and how these factors change over the decades. The purpose for public art competition can be understood through the ideology of the Swedish welfare state and the cultural policy of the Social Democratic government in the 1930’s. The public art competitions could support the Swedish artists economically, but was also a way for the Swedish Government, through the Public Art Agency, to control and guarantee that the public artworks were of high artistic quality. This idea of artistic quality became more and more dominant as a purpose for the competitions through the 1950’s and 1960’s.  The artists active in the Swedish Artists' National Organization found the competitions to be of great importance and the competitions were much discussed in the organisations annual paper. Many of the artists that discussed the artist competitions were of the same generation born in the 1910’s or 1920’s and were working with public art commissions to a great extent. For them, the public art competitions gave recognition and a possible income. My analysis also shows that the public art competitions were also connected to the concept of modernism. The status of the competitions changed along with the changing concept of modernism. The competition was at its highest status in the 1930’s and 1940’s, when many artists were engaged in public art commissions. It became less popular among young artists in the 1960’s, when the art field was more politically radical and critical against authorities.