ceived mysterious hidden depths beneath his deco-
rative surfaces.
Impact Koons was perceived as a phenomenon
both in terms of his commercial success and his con-
troversial art work. Disdained by some critics as deca-
dent, tacky, cheap, and sensationalistic, his pieces
nevertheless won a great deal of contemporary insti-
tutional acceptance, including an exhibition at Lon-
don’s Royal Academy. Of consistently high market
value, his work fetched millions at auction, making
him one of the highest-earning artists of his time. He
also exerted a major influence on younger artists
and found acceptance as an original and important
figure within the very high art tradition, whose pre-
mises he appeared to subvert.
Further Reading
Sylvester, David. “Jeff Koons.” InInterviews with Amer-
ican Artists. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University
Press, 2001.
Tomkins, Calvin. “The Turnaround Artist: Jeff
Koons Up from Banality.”The New Yorker, vol. 83,
no. 9 (April 23, 2007): 58-67.
Margaret Boe Birns
See also Art movements; Christo; National En-
dowment for the Arts (NEA).
Kosovo conflict
The Event Ethnic conflict between Serbs and
Albanians in Kosovo
Date 1996-1999
Place Kosovo, Serbia
The war in Kosovo was one of several in the breakup of Yu-
goslavia that led to North American diplomatic and mili-
tar y involvement.
Kosovo, particularly Kosovo field, is historically sa-
cred ground for the Serbs, the site of a legendary
battle against the Ottoman Turks in 1389. Over the
centuries, however, the area became the homeland
for Albanian Muslims. After World War II, the com-
munist leader Tito (Josip Broz) reconstructed Yugo-
slavia along national lines into a federation of six re-
publics, with the Serbian republic containing two
autonomous regions—the Hungarian Banat and
the Albanian Kosovo. The authorities treated the Al-
banians as second-class citizens, and the region was
one of the poorest in the federation. In the 1980’s,
after the death of Tito, Yugoslavia fractured as na-
tionalism grew stronger among its various constitu-
ents. In the 1990’s, with the fall of communist gov-
ernments throughout Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia
separated into its constituent republics, and wars
erupted between ethnic groups. In the middle of
the decade, North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) forces led by the United States intervened
in Bosnia, where Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks (Slavic
Muslims) fought among themselves.
Living in an autonomous region rather than a
constituent republic, the Albanians in Kosovo were
in a special category. Furthermore, there was an in-
dependent Albania next to Kosovo to which they
could look for support. As ethnic tensions between
the Serbs and Albanians increased, many Serbs fled
under threat of Albanian terror raids, and rumors
that radical Islamic fundamentalists were aiding the
Albanians circulated. In 1987, Serbian nationalist
Slobodan Miloševi 6 visited the region promising to
defend Serbian interests. Two years later as presi-
dent of the republic, he orchestrated changes in Ser-
bia’s constitution limiting Kosovo’s autonomy and
adopted measures causing Albanian unemployment
and curtailing cultural activities. In 1991, Albanian
nationalists proclaimed the Republic of Kosovo and
elected Ibrahim Rugova, an Albanian writer and
professor, as president of a shadow government in
unsanctioned elections.
In 1996, the Albanians formed an army of its own,
the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which received
arms from Albania and was able to launch attacks
against Serbian police and army units in Kosovo. As
they did in Bosnia, NATO countries once again at-
tempted to mediate the crisis.The United States Intervenes Throughout the de-
cade, U.S. president Bill Clinton sent warnings to
Miloševi 6 to stop aggression against the Albanian
Kosovars. In March, 1998, U.S. secretary of state
Madeleine Albright condemned the Serb attacks. In
the meantime, the so-called Contact Group (United
States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and
Russia) met in London to discuss the Kosovo crisis.
The U.N. Security Council condemned Belgrade,
imposed economic sanctions, and banned arms
sales to Serbia. In May, Miloševi 6 and Rugova met
without results. Rugova then traveled to the United
States, where he met with Clinton, Albright, and492 Kosovo conflict The Nineties in America