This essay traces the adaptive patterns of post-war émigré artists attempting to produce and promote their work in the United States. Better educated and psychologically equipped to lead a bicultural life abroad than preceding waves of Polish immigrants to America, these artists nonetheless confronted, on the one hand, the creative strictures and social marginalization of the American academy and, on the other, the profesional instability and facile fashion-consciousness of American commercial culture. The émigré artist's success has depended on his or her knowledgeable and willing manipulation of the market strategies of American culture - of 'proven' artistic roles, topics, and styles.