Faces to Watch in ’96 :...

This is getting to be a habit. For three straight years, the new year has begun without a director at the helm of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Sooner or later, a major face to watch will be the one that rests atop a new director’s shoulders.

This year, however, a slight difference inflects the lingering absence.

In June, LACMA stunned both the city and the museum profession by creating the problematic new post of president. The administrative job was assumed by Andrea L. Rich, left, highly regarded vice chancellor at UCLA, who claims no art credentials whatever. A director, when one is hired, would report to the president.

With the director’s job shrunk into something closer to that of a traditional chief curator, LACMA has become the lone art institution of its kind in the United States withouta trained art historian or curator calling the shots. Finding the right fit in a new director has been made even harder than it was before.