LONDON (Reuters) - Tate museums will showcase works by 19th and 20th century giants Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet and Edvard Munch as well as contemporary artists Damien Hirst and Cy Twombly next year when Britain hosts the Olympics.
Tino Sehgal has also been commissioned to create a work for Tate Modern's Turbine Hall as part of the Cultural Olympiad, a four-year arts program leading up to the games to be held in London from July 27-August 12, 2012.
Sehgal's new work, part of the annual Unilever Series where an artist is invited to produce a work for the cavernous space, is one of two Tate projects that are part of the Olympiad.
The second is the Tate Movie Project, a nationwide film animation project for children which will culminate in the production of a fully animated film.
Among the highlights of Tate's 2012 program is the first major survey of Hirst's work to be held in the UK.
It will run at Tate Modern from April 5-September 9 and include many of his most famous works, including a shark suspended in formaldehyde in a glass case created 20 years ago.
The same museum hosts "Edvard Munch: The Modern Eye" (June 28-October 14, 2012), providing what Tate called a "radical assessment" of the works of the Norwegian artist revealing his obsession with the rise of photography and film.
At Tate Britain, also in London, a show will explore Picasso's connections with Britain, where he was both a figure of controversy and celebrity who had a major impact on British modernism. It runs from February15-July 15, 2012.
The gallery will also host an exhibition starting on September 12, 2012 which aims to demonstrate how the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood shook the art world of mid-19th-century Britain.
Tate Liverpool will stage an exhibition comparing the works of J.M.W. Turner, Monet and Twombly (June 22-October 28, 2012), and Tate St Ives in Cornwall dedicates a show to U.S. artist Alex Katz to coincide with his 85th birthday (May 19-September 23, 2012).
Tate's four galleries were visited by more than 7.5 million visitors in 2010, making it the third most visited museum organization in the world.
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)
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