ASSESSING THE BLOCKBUSTER: Both “The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier” at the Dallas Museum of Art and “Caravaggio and His Followers in Rome” at the Kimbell Art Museum have rightfully been labeled “blockbuster” exhibitions. And it’s these blockbusters that museums are turning to more and more in an effort to program to as wide an audience as possible and improve the bottom line in the process. But are the shows themselves worthy of all the hype? Gaile Robinson dissects each show on dfw.com and explains why one works and the other has problems.

AN ARTIST’S ART HISTORY: Once a month, painter Anne Royer teaches a class at Heard-Craig Carriage House in downtown McKinney. But she doesn’t teach painting. Instead, she focuses on her other passion: art history. “There’s a dialogue between the work that was created and the context in which it was created, and that’s important to understand the work,” she tells dallasnews.com. “Think of a sculpture as having the mind of the creator and the mind of the civilization in which he lived and the culture in which he lived. It’s embodying that spirit.” The class is offered the first Wednesday of every month at 12:30 p.m.

OUTDOOR ART: Fort Worth photographer Karl Thibodeaux likes taking pictures of landscapes just like most photographers do. But it doesn’t bother him if some man-made materials make it into the frame. Some of his favorite shots are ones where he can show the natural and industrial worlds co-existing.  “I want people to think about nature as something that’s always around us, not just in a park or in the country,” he tells greensourcedfw.org, which also has posted a few of his pics. You can check out more of his work at a current group show at the Fort Worth Central Library.