2 L.A. Museum Directors on National Gallery List : * Art: Getty’s Walsh and LACMA’s Powell are among the candidates to head the Washington museum.

Two Los Angeles museum directors--John Walsh of the J. Paul Getty Museum and Earl A. (Rusty) Powell of the County Museum of Art--are among candidates to succeed J. Carter Brown as director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Edmund P. Pillsbury, director of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, and National Gallery Deputy Director Roger Mandle are also in the running, according to sources close to the gallery. An announcement of the appointment is expected at the end of the month.

The National Gallery is guarding the search for Brown’s successor as tightly as a state secret, but speculation about the high-level post has been rampant since Jan. 24, when the 57-year-old Brown stunned the art world by announcing that he would retire after 22 years as director.

Only the third director in the gallery’s 50-year history, Brown had become synonymous with the nation’s premier cultural showcase.

His patrician elegance and gregarious manner defined the gallery as he moved easily through moneyed circles, attracted gifts, appealed to patriotism and welcomed the masses to the gallery. The child of a marriage that blended the old families of Brown University and the Carter clothing business, he was said to have been born to the job.

Who would succeed him?

The early favorite in the art world’s rumor mill was Pillsbury, who is still considered the leading candidate by some insiders because of his prominence in the field, aristocratic name, social connections and ties to Paul Mellon, whose father, Andrew W. Mellon, founded the National Gallery.

Recently, however, Walsh’s name has supplanted Pillsbury’s at the top of the art world’s speculative list of probable successors. Walsh informed Getty museum staff members of his candidacy at a recent meeting, a former museum employee told The Times, adding credence to this theory.

A highly regarded scholar and educator with East Coast museum credentials, Walsh has built a sterling reputation in a closely watched institution. He has quelled much criticism of the Getty’s use of its wealth by upgrading its collections and building a vision of a specialized institution that can serve the public as well as scholars.

As a past president of the Assn. of Art Museum Directors, he proved himself an eloquent spokesman against censorship in the trial of Dennis Barrie, who was acquitted of obscenity charges stemming from a Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center.

Will Walsh leave his West Coast pinnacle for the nation’s capital?

National Gallery press officers have no comment.

Neither does Walsh, and his favored status has been denied by Franklin D. Murphy, chairman of the board of trustees at the National Gallery and chairman emeritus of Times-Mirror, the parent company of The Times.

“The search is on track. Interviews are going on,” Murphy said, “but there is no single candidate yet. John Walsh is one of several candidates.”

Murphy confirmed that Walsh, Powell, Pillsbury and Mandle are among finalists but declined to reveal a complete list of serious contenders. Like Walsh, the three other candidates have declined to comment.

On paper, they have many qualities in common. All have East Coast educations, all are connected with prestigious institutions and their ages fall within a six-year range.

Walsh, the oldest at 54, became director of the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1983.

Educated at Yale, Leyden and Columbia universities, he was a curator of European paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from 1970-75, taught art history at Columbia and Barnard College from 1969-77 and served as curator of paintings at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston from 1977-83.

In his highly visible post at the Getty, Walsh oversees seven curatorial departments and is planning for the opening of a new museum in the Getty Center, currently under construction in Brentwood.

Powell, 48, did his undergraduate work at Williams College and earned a doctorate in 19th-Century American and European art history at Harvard University. He held several curatorial and administrative posts at the National Gallery before coming to Los Angeles in 1980 to direct the County Museum of Art.

Powell arrived as a virtual unknown, but he has presided over a period of unprecedented expansion in building, programs and attendance at the massive facility on Wilshire Boulevard.

Mandle, 50, has the advantage of being on the spot, having served as Brown’s deputy director at the National Gallery since 1988. Educated at Williams College and New York University, he was associate director of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts from 1967-74, then moved to the Toledo Museum of Art, where he served as associate director, 1974-76, and director, 1977-88.

Pillsbury, a 48-year-old alumnus of Yale University and the University of London, began his career as curator of European art and assistant director at the Yale University Art Gallery in the ‘70s. He was founding director of the Yale Center for British Art from 1976-80, and served as chief executive officer of the Paul Mellon Center for Studies in British Art in London during the same period.

He has directed the Kimbell Art Museum since 1980, presiding over a prestigious institution that is noted for its jewel-like art collection and an acclaimed modern building, designed by Louis I. Kahn. Pillsbury was in the news a few years ago when he declined an offer to head the National Gallery in London.

John R. Stevenson, president of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, is chairman of the search committee, charged with finding a new director. Board member Robert Smith is vice chairman.

Two other trustees, Ruth Carter Stevenson and Alexander M. Laughlin, are members of the committee. Murphy, who serves on both the Getty and County Museum boards, said he was excused from the committee to avoid a conflict of interest.

National Gallery’s Contenders

* John Walsh, 54, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum since 1983. Scholar of 17th-Century Dutch painting. Formerly associate curator and curator of European paintings, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Professor of art history, Columbia University and Barnard College. Curator of paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

* Earl A. Powell, 48, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art since 1980. Scholar of 19th-Century American and European art. Formerly curator of the James Michener Collection and professor of art history, University of Texas, Austin. Curator, senior staff assistant, executive curator, National Gallery of Art.

* Edmund P. Pillsbury, 48, director of the Kimbell Art Museum since 1980. Scholar of British painting. Formerly a curator and assistant director of Yale Art Gallery. Director, Yale Center. CEO of Paul Mellon Center, London.

* Roger Mandle, 50, deputy director of the National Gallery of Art since 1988. Scholar of 18th-Century Dutch painting. Formerly associate director, Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Associate director, director, Toledo Museum of Art.

* National Gallery of Art hosts 6 million visitors annually with a $52.3-million budget. It was established in 1941 by Andrew W. Mellon, who donated the West Building and a 152-work collection; the East Building, above, also donated, opened in 1978.