As per le comment.
function remove_artist_meta() {
remove_meta_box( '{taxonomy name}', 'post', 'side' );
}
add_action( 'admin_menu' , 'remove_artist_meta' );
The Admin menu has been always difficult to deal with, some help here would be nice: http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/12718
But I think that this could be added a a parameter to register_taxonomy
.
http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/21543