Funny but I've always kind of thought of self-taught as the only kind of pure artist anyway. If someone teaches you how to draw that doesn't really count to me. I guess that's being overly simplistic but I don't know how people define self-taught as opposed to not self-taught.
I guess what I'm saying is I think you have to have an inherent talent and desire to create art to really be an artist in my mind. Otherwise you're just someone who learned the trick of how to draw in perspective, etc.