Mind mapping Gilbert and George

Since Last I posted I have openned a big box of software I got because of the disabled student allowance , which I get because of dispraxia which I will no doubt explain at a later date. The reason I mention it is that I have been trying the mind map software which I have come to the conclusion is best for essays, unless I can get the blog to publish in a Mind Map TM format. Because of all of this I have got far to much to publish at once but I'm going to any way.

Gilbert and George; Historical and Contemporary artists

I always think an artist (or double act) should be judged by his or her work. So theoretically a retrospective of Gilbert and George's work should be the place to start, if my prejudice against them is going to be tested then this is where it should happen.

Secondary to the work itself but still important is an understanding or appreciation of the context , and the period the work was created in. This applies to a historical artists rather than contemporary artists, but with artists such as Gilbert and George where their work stretches back over almost forty years, back to their breakthrough, which according to the exhibition programme was in 1969, before I was born.
But, I have live through the period that most of the work was created in, and even though I was very young at the beginning of the eighties I remember the feeling of the time not just because of I LOVE80s revival TV but because if affected me, so the work although not contemporary to now, it is contemporary to me.

I have however come to the conclusion that G&G as I have come to think of them cannot really be called contemporary artists, in much the same way The Rolling Stones are not really a contemporary band. They may still be performing today and they may be admired but they are a remnant of a bygone era, they had a heyday in the late seventies and eighties (okay the stones was 60s and 70s) when they were world beaters the zeitgeist, not just riding but creating the wave that has shaped and influenced not just Artists but a whole generation Like the Stones they have been living on that reputation, while Mick, Keef, Ronnie & Charlie are perpetually on a farewell tour Gilbert & George have been rehashing their once ground breaking work to fit new issues, in a way that doesn't really convince, that its not just about self promotion they may have supposedly found the perfect way to express themselves but It feels to me that they seem to fear that if it doesn't look like a G&G no one will believe them