Education
Born in Rotterdam in 1954, Nefkens studied journalism in France and the United States.
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Han Nefkens
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Nefkens purchases and commissions international contemporary art with the specific purpose to give it on long-term loan or donate it to museums. He worked as a radio correspondent in Mexico for eleven years. He discovered in 1987 he was Human Immunodeficiency Virus-positive.
In 2001 he started the H+F Collection of contemporary art, which consists of photographs, videos, installations and paintings by – among others – Jeff Wall, Sam Taylor-Wood, Bill Viola, Shirin Neshat and Felix Gonzalez-Torres.
Nefkens places them on long-term loan to museums in the Netherlands and abroad, including the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, Rotterdam’s Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais in Dunkirk. In addition to being a collector and patron of the arts, Nefkens is also a writer
His first book, Bloedverwanten (Blood Brothers. 1995), is a semi-autobiographical novel about two brothers who are both infected with the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome virus.
This was followed by a collection of short pieces, Twee lege stoelen (Two Empty Chairs.
2005). The book De Gevlogen Vogel notities over een herwonnen leven (Borrowed Time: Notes on a Recovered Life), which was published in 2008 and has been translated into Spanish, is a report of the lengthy recovery process of Nefkens" Human Immunodeficiency Virus induced encephalitis. ‘Giving is one of the most underrated values in society,’ Nefkens says.
‘By setting up something that I can share with others, I become part of the world.
Sharing is the antidote to loneliness, when you share you are not alone.’.
