At home and abroad, eager to help

"Until this man breathes his last," said his daughter, "he will be doing something for somebody somewhere."

A collector's view of the artists

David and Gerry Pincus have been collecting art for half a century. They've spent a lot of time socializing with artists. Here are his impressions of a few.

Willem de Kooning, one of his favorites: "He was a handsome guy, and he liked dames."

Claes Oldenburg, creator of the iconic Clothespin sculpture near City Hall, spent a day with the Pincuses in the early '70s, installing one of his Giant Three-Way Plug sculptures on their front lawn. "We asked him what he wanted to eat. He wanted melons. So Gerry had to rush out to the grocery to buy melons."

David Smith, "the most important American sculptor of the 20th century," stayed with the Pincuses when his 1964 show at the University of Pennsylvania's Institute of Contemporary Art opened. "We're all blitzed. Smith says: 'You know who the biggest collector of David Smith is? Me. Nobody wants my stuff. Next summer, why don't you come up to New York and we'll pile the stuff in a truck?' " Smith died in an auto accident the next spring before Pincus could make the journey. Smith's sculptures now are typically priced in the millions.

Mark di Suvero, a close friend whose giant Iroquois sculpture Pincus paid to have installed on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway: "Mark is crazier than a hoot owl."

See a slide show featuring David N. Pincus and read previous profiles in the series at http://go.philly.com/ defining_lives

Contact staff writer Andrew Maykuth

at 215-854-2947 or amaykuth@phillynews.com.