Gallery to host best of Britart

The show has been selected from over 7,000 pieces

A new exhibition is being billed as a who's who of British art since 1945.

How to Improve the World: 60 Years of British Art looks at the impact of UK artists around the globe.

Work from post-war artists such as Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and David Hockney will hang alongside Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst.

About 150 works, encompassing painting, sculpture, video, photography, sound and digital media will be shown at the Hayward gallery on London's South Bank.

In pictures: Six decades of Britart

The exhibition will span the aftermath of the Second World War, the "irreverence of the 1960s" and the "brazen assertiveness of the 1980s" to the present day, organisers said.

It has been drawn from the Arts Council Collection, formed in 1946 to promote contemporary British art, which features 7,000 works by 2,000 artists but currently has no permanent home.

"The exhibition walks you through the post-war period of contemporary British art," said Hayward director Ralph Rugoff.

New works have been commissioned as a companion to the show, which will feature 120 British artists, as well a series of talks, performances and tours.