The Washington money man met the New York artist on neutral turf last week--and at least one of them came away entranced. Says Sculptor Louise Nevelson of Federal Reserve Chief G. William Miller: "I found him gracious and good to look at--and that never hurts." The setting was Brown University, where Miller and Nevelson were awarded honorary degrees. During the academic procession, Nevelson, whose sable collar and cuffs peeked out from her academic robe, drew curious glances and cheers from onlookers. "I al ways dress this way," she reassured the crowd. The outfit, explained Nevelson, is just one of her "summer suits."

"Young women with pointed breasts, sing of sap, sing of springtime." The poet is Senegal's longtime President Leopold Senghor, 71, who has written seven books of verse. In Manhattan to address the U.N. special session on disarmament, Senghor also read some of his poems to 700 listeners at a local community center. "My basic themes," he explained, "are black Africa, brotherhood in suffering, death and, very naturally, love, with emphasis on woman, both black and white." For his next book, Senghor plans a collection of poetic elegies, including one on Martin Luther King.

Giancarlo Uzielli has thrown in the towel as a member of the New York Stock Exchange --and picked up an apron. To practice up for Uzies, the Manhattan restaurant he plans to open, he has been tending bar at a local dining spot. "As long as they don't throw me a pina colada, I'm O.K.," says Uzielli, who is the ex of Henry Ford's younger daughter, Anne. Uzies will specialize in Italian cooking, including pizza. "I don't like the word pizza. It cheapens it," says Uzielli. By any name, his will cost $8 a slice.

The life of an artist, says Robert De Niro, is "a very show-bizzy thing. You're up and you're down." The speaker is not the actor but his father, who studied with Hans Hofmann and Josef Albers and "flirted with abstract expressionism briefly in the 1940s." Since then, he has had periodic shows of his loosely drawn portraits and landscapes somewhat reminiscent of Matisse. At a retrospective exhibition of his father's work at Los Angeles' Stuart David Galleries, De Niro Jr. was on hand for the opening. "I like my father's paintings very much," he says. In fact, Dad's first effort, Negress in a Bathtub, is now in his son's possession --but consigned to the closet till he finds the right place to hang it.

On the Record

Barnard Hughes, Tony Award winner for his role in Da: "I was going to be philosophical if I lost. But thank God I can postpone being philosophical for a while."

Ezer Weizman, Israeli Defense Minister and former air force chief, when asked if he still does trick flying: "Since I've been in politics, I don't need to do acrobatics. I have enough close shaves every day without flying."

Fran Lebowitz, author (Metropolitan Life): "Really, I'm against the idea that writers should be struggling and poor. I think there are other disciplines besides poverty."

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