In this article I discuss how post-war refugee artists looked at the American artistic context and the fostering of one’s own national art during the second half of the 20th century. On the basis of archival material and published texts I seek to reveal how Lithuanian émigrés evaluated works and processes of art in a cultural environment that was new to them. Lithuanian creators of art had been formed in a European artistic environment. Having settled in Western countries after World War II, they were not always able to understand the processes of American avant-garde art. The relation of newly-arrived Lithuanian artists to the cultural environment they weren’t used to was often complicated. This was magnified by the contrast between the national community’s desire to have a national art and the activities of American museums and galleries oriented toward the international scene and the market.