While art is an activity that is socially valued, the image of the artist as perceived by the public and expressed in the literature has rarely been studied empirically. The Adjective Check List is used to test one dimension of this issue—June Wayne's hypothesis that the artist is a stereotypical woman, focusing on the artist's view of himself/herself and artists in general. Data were gathered by means of a questionnaire mailed to 1753 artists who had been nominated for the national Awards in Visual Arts during the first five years of the program (1982–86). It was found that artists tend to have self-images which are androgynous in terms of sex stereotyping, while at the same time, they see artists in general as relatively masculine. It was also found that while artists tend to view their colleagues in favorable terms, they view themselves as individual artists significantly more favorably. The implications of these findings for the profession of art are discussed.
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