Background
| Sharing a vision Han Nefkens first joined forces with the Centraal Museum in Utrecht. In 1999, while searching for a way to make his collection accessible to a wider public, Nefkens approached the museum’s then director, Sjarel Ex. It was to become a productive and intensive partnership. Within a short period of time the museum was given works by Bill Viola, Tony Oursler and Pipilotti Rist on long-term loan. Later acquisitions were to follow, including work by Shirin Neshat, Sam Taylor-Wood, Thomas Rentmeister, Dan Graham and Diana Thater. In addition to the Centraal Museum, from 2000 onwards Nefkens also granted works of art on long-term loan to the Folkwang Museum in Essen, De Pont Museum for Contemporary Art in Tilburg, Huis Marseille Museum for Photography in Amsterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Museum Het Domein in Sittard and the FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais in Dunkirk. Most loans will be left with their respective museums as bequests. | Since 2005 Nefkens has mainly bought works intended for specific exhibitions and other projects. In 2006, in consultation with Els Barents, director of Huis Marseille, he bought the photos shown in the Whisper Not! exhibition. In 2007 he purchased works for the David Goldblatt: Intersections exhibition, also at the Huis Marseille. In 2005, after close consultation with Nefkens, curator Hilde Teerlinck created the travelling exhibition The Suspended Moment, and this collaboration was continued in 2007 with the exhibition So Close/So Far Away. A number of works were also purchased or commissioned for the 2007 exhibition Choix d’artistes at the Institut Néerlandais in Paris. ‘I’d like to be a fly on the wall in the museum and watch people looking, listen to them talking. How does the art I’ve collected affect people?’ | More about Han Nefkens as a collector More about Han Nefkens as a writer Other projects by Han Nefkens: ArtAids H+F Curatorial Grant H+F Fashion on the Edge H+F Patronage |  Han Nefkens in one of the Vegetative Sleeping Rooms, an intervention by Steiner & Lenzlinger in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen realized through the H+F Patronage. Photo: Amke |