Art Museum Narrows Field of Candidates : Leadership: The search for a new director of the Newport Harbor institution focuses on two possibilities.

The Newport Harbor Art Museum has narrowed the field of candidates to two for its long-vacant director’s post, a museum spokeswoman said Thursday.

Spokeswoman Maxine Gaiber said she does not know the names of the candidates, who are now being interviewed, because each has asked not to be identified. Gaiber said a new chief should be named in early 1991.

Museum board President Thomas H. Nielsen and search committee chairman Harry G. Bubb declined comment.

The museum has been trying to fill the position since Kevin E. Consey resigned the post 16 months ago to take a similar job at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. In March, the institution hired the Los Angeles-based search firm Korn-Ferry International to help.

Nielsen said this fall that museum officials went back to the drawing board after one desired candidate “became ineligible.”

At least four museum professionals from as far away as New York have told The Times they were approached about the job, but for various reasons none were interested.

One museum expert has said that it typically takes up to 18 months for museums to hire new directors. But the search may have been hampered by recent events, as some candidates said they were concerned that museum trustees fired renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano and hired a second architect to draft alternative sketches for its new $30-million building, without a new director aboard.

Museum officials are now negotiating a contract with William Pedersen, a partner in the New York firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, to complete his preliminary alternative designs, Gaiber said.

The museum has also been without a chief curator since Paul Schimmel resigned late last year. Officials say they expect that job to be filled after they hire a new director.