When Martin Creed won the Turner Prize six years ago, visitors to his exhibition at Tate Britain could have been forgiven for thinking that one of the galleries had faulty electrics.

The artist had arranged for the lights in an empty room to flicker on and off every five seconds, but the white-walled space was as bare as the emperor in his new clothes, and only an exhibition label revealed the presence of a work of art.

The gallery announced yesterday that it was commissioning a new work from the artist, something to fill its sprawling 300ft-long (90m) Duveen sculpture galleries — or not, in Creed’s case.

It declined to reveal what it had commissioned as part of a six-figure, three-year sponsorship deal, but Creed is planning another provocative piece.

The Times understands that he will do no more than get individuals to run through the gallery every minute for months on end.

This is an artist who is no stranger to controversy. He made his name by scrunching up a sheet of A4 paper into a ball, above, attaching a blob of Blu-Tack to a wall and placing a few tiles next to a lavatory. His work — which sells for up to £100,000 — is about the qualities of “nothing”, the artist has said. He makes “things” rather than “art”, as he puts it.

His critics agree, with more damning language, but Sir Nicholas Serota, the director of the Tate, paid tribute to Creed yesterday as a leading talent who “asks questions about what it is to make a creative work . . . and how we see the world”. Creed, 39, a graduate of the Slade School of Fine Art, was born in Wakefield and lives in London. Other works in his repertoire have involved him filling half a gallery with balloons, but he made his name internationally when he won the Turner in 2001 for Work No 227: The Lights Going On and Off. The visitor was said to become part of the art simply by entering the room.

News of his Turner Prize win divided the art world, with some critics saying that the work left them in the dark and others praising his subversive wit.

While David Lee, the editor of the satirical art magazine The Jackdaw, said that “a light being switched on and off is not a good work of art”, Rachel Campbell-Johnston, The Times’s art critic, hoped that Creed would win. “His flickering installation may mean everything or nothing,” she wrote.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York was so impressed that it bought the work in 2006 for an undisclosed sum.

Stephen Deuchar, director of Tate Britain, described Work No 227 yesterday as a “metaphor for lots of things”, including life and death — “and an exploration of how little one can say in a contemporary work of art and yet have an impact”. He added: “Creed is one of the most engaging and thought-provoking contemporary British artists working today. He creates arresting works that often disrupt the norm.”

Creed’s new commission will be unveiled to the public on June 30. “I promise you it will be quite memorable,” Mr Deuchars said. “We don’t choose works in order to generate controversy.”

The Duveen sculpture galleries opened in 1937. Funded by Sir Joseph Duveen, they were the first in England designed specifically for the display of sculpture. Since 2000 the commissions have been awarded every second year. Previous artists have included Michael Landy, who installed a full-scale replica of the exterior of his parents’ suburban home, and Mark Wallinger, who recreated the peace campaigner Brian Haw’s Parliament Square protest, complete with 600 weather-beaten banners and posters — which won him the Turner Prize last year.

Yesterday the Tate announced that Creed’s commission was part of a sponsorship deal from Sotheby’s that would enable the commission to take place every year.

Cheyenne Westphal, the auctioneer’s chairman of contemporary art, Europe, described Creed as an amazing artist. “What I love about him is that he makes you aware of the moment. He pulls you into the present moment, which is very powerful. The lights go on and off. You think, ‘What is going on?’, not, ‘What am I going to cook for dinner tonight?’ He pulls you into the here and now.”

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