Diageo's gin brand takes over from Channel 4, which has sponsored the event for the last 15 years. The last corporate sponsor of the UK's top art prize was in 1989, when the now-defunct investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert sponsored the award.
The new three-year deal allows organisers Tate Britain to double the prize fund from £20,000 to £40,000.
The sponsorship package includes branding at the Turner exhibition and associated evening events beginning October this year; the creation of a new free audio guide to the exhibition in association with Gordon's and a series of evening talks alongside the exhibition by art experts and academics.
This will be supported by various on-bottle promotions to the off-trade featuring the Tate and Turner Prize brands and brand presence throughout the awards evening, which will continue to be broadcast live on Channel 4. There will also be a PR campaign and a Gordon's presence on the Tate website.
The deal also sees Gordon's becoming the exclusive spirit provider at the Tate galleries during the course of the deal.
Mark Sandy, Gordon's marketing manager, said: "Our aim is to encourage the British public to embrace new ways of thinking about and making art. In turn, we hope to raise awareness of the craftsmanship, skill and creativity that goes into producing a work of art because that's the way we think of Gordon's gin."
The Turner Prize is widely regarded as the UK's annual celebration of cutting edge and controversial art.
The prize is best known for the likes of Damien Hurst and his mutilated cows suspended in formaldehyde, and Tracey Emin's 'My Bed', a confessional piece of art designed to "express Emin's sluttish personality, the detritus of a life quintessentially her own" and which featured a matress strewn with panty-hose, vodka bottles, condoms, contraceptives and polaroid portraits of a white fluffy toy.
This year, the four artists shortlisted for the prize include Jeremy Deller's 'Memory Bucket', which documents his travels through the state of Texas; Langlands & Bell's 'The House of Osama bin Laden', first shown at the Imperial War Museum; Yinka Shonibare's 'Double Dutch', using African fabrics to subvert conventional readings of cultural identity; and Kutlug Ataman's video installations, which describe the lives of individuals, creating intimate portraits while addressing broader social concerns.
The deal was brokered through media agency Carat and below-the-line agency Triangle will work on the promotional elements of the campaign.
The Turner Prize will be broadcast on December 13 this year on Channel 4.
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