“‘Never once — never once — have I decided on an exhibition because the attendance was going to be phenomenal,'” says Koshalek, the new director of the Smithsonian’s modern and contemporary art museum. “‘Never once. Never.’ If anything, given the current economic climate and the cost of major shows, he imagines a series of smaller projects that might re-create a few of modernism’s landmark exhibitions, which were often much more modest than today’s extravaganzas.”