Two Flags (Whitney Anniversary Poster)

1967–1980

Artistic adviser to the Merce Cunningham Dance Company

Johns had long supported the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, helping to raise funds and attention and assisting Rauschenberg with set and costume designs in the 1950s, and from 1967 to 1980 he served as its artistic adviser.

1973–1987

A farmhouse with a glass-walled studio at Stony Point

From 1973 to 1987 Johns kept a rustic 1930s farmhouse with a glass-walled studio in Stony Point, New York.

1980

The Whitney buys “Three Flags” for $1 million

In 1980 the Whitney Museum of American Art paid $1 million for Three Flags (1958), then the highest price ever paid for the work of a living artist.