Old Masters to Pop Artists as Tate unveils its blockbusters

Blockbuster shows of works by JMW Turner, Anthony van Dyck and stars of the Pop Art movement are highlights of the new programme at the Tate announced today.

Turner And The Masters next autumn will pair some of Tate Britain's ever-popular Turners with major works by predecessors such as Canaletto, Rembrandt and Rubens and contemporaries including John Constable.

The aim is to show the work he hoped to "imitate, rival and surpass".

The show of 100 masterpieces will include Turner's Helvoetsluys from the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum which will be reunited with the Tate's Opening Of Waterloo Bridge by Constable for the first time since they were both seen at the Royal Academy in 1832.

The van Dyck exhibition next spring will show the Flemish artist's impact on British cultural life, both in his own lifetime and through his influence on portrait painters up to the 20th century.

The National Trust, which is working with Tate Britain on the show, is lending nine works and the Queen is also making loans.

Meanwhile Tate Modern will host an exhibition examining how modern artists from Salvador Dali through Andy Warhol to Tracey Emin have embraced commercialism and the cult of celebrity.

Sold Out: The Artist In The Age Of Pop will include a re-creation of the famous Pop Shop opened by American graffiti artist Keith Haring in New York in 1986 - four years before he died aged 31 of an Aids-related illness. The shop sold T-shirts, toys, posters and buttons bearing his images. Details of the programme were announced as the Tate published its annual report for 2007/08. There were 5.2 million visitors to Tate Modern and 1.5 million to Tate Britain - short of last year's total of

7.7 million.

It was a record year for acquisitions, however. Nearly 500 works valued at £63.1 million were bought or given --many after an appeal by Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota.They included four pieces donated by Damien Hirst, the most expensive being Acquired Inability To Escape which was valued at £4 million.

Louise Bourgeois's gift of her giant spider, Maman, was valued at £1.27 million. A previously unannounced piece, The Wool Work, by Stanley Spencer, was bought with the help of the Art Fund for £1.25 million. The report also details the immense generosity of the bequest by the late Simon Sainsbury. He gave 18 works with a Pierre Bonnard the most valuable at £10 million closely followed by a Francis Bacon at £9 million.

These figures do not include the works given by dealer Anthony d'Offay and Bigger Trees Near Warter by David Hockney which will be formally listed in the collection next year.