{{Short description|American art historian (1928–2019)}}

'''Walter M. Spink'''(February 16, 1928 - November 23, 2019) was an American art historian who was best known for his extensive study of Buddhist art in India, particularly the Ajanta Caves, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. About his work on the Ajanta caves, scholars have acknowledged that his ideas "revolutionized the history of the site".<ref name="auto">{{Cite journal|title=The Life and Times of Walter Spink|author=Bonnie Brereton|year=2000|journal=Ars Orientalis|volume=30|pages=1–5|jstor = 4629562}}</ref> He was a professor of art history at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=On the Development of Early Buddhist Art in India|first=Walter|last=Spink|date=June 1, 1958|journal=The Art Bulletin|volume=40|issue=2|pages=95–104|doi=10.1080/00043079.1958.11408525}}</ref>

==Biography== Spink was born in Worcester, Massachusetts and went to Amherst College, where he studied philosophy and Western art history, graduating in 1949. He then went to Harvard University where he was drawn to Indian art, after being influenced by Benjamin Rowland, who was among the first Western art historians to explore Indian art. At Harvard, Spink received his MA and then PhD in 1954 on the "Rock Cut Monuments of the Andhra Period".<ref name="auto"/> From 1956 to 1961, he taught at Brandeis University, and thereafter joined University of Michigan, where he remained till his retirement in 2000.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Chanchani, Nachiket|url=https://lsa.umich.edu/histart/news-events/all-news/search-news/remembering-walter-spink.html|title=Remembering Walter Spink &#124; U-M LSA History of Art|website=lsa.umich.edu}}</ref>

===Work on Ajanta Caves=== Spink's major contribution was to interpret the Ajanta Caves, a Buddhist complex of caves near Aurangabad, Maharashtra, that was carved between 2nd century BCE and 1st century CE. He started studying the complex in the 1950s,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Phadke |first1=Sharmila |title=अजिंठ्याच्या लेण्यांमधल्या मुक्कामाची तब्बल ६६ वर्षे |url=https://www.lokmat.com/manthan/66-years-stay-caves-ajanta-a296/ |access-date=24 March 2021 |work=Lokmat |date=14 February 2021 |language=mr-IN}}</ref> and analysed the caves for over four decades in almost 100 publications. The culmination of his research was the ''Ajanta: History and Development'' series published by Brill in Leiden, Netherlands.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/society/history-and-culture/remembering-ajanta-scholar-prof-walter-spink-1928-2019/article30122951.ece|title=Remembering Ajanta Scholar Prof. Walter Spink (1928-2019)|first=Job|last=Thomas|newspaper=The Hindu |date=November 30, 2019|via=www.thehindu.com}}</ref>

==Books== *{{cite book |last=Spink |first=Walter M. |date=2005 |title=Ajanta, History and Development, Volume 1: The End of the Golden Age |location=Leiden, Netherlands |publisher=Brill Publishers |isbn=978-9004205710}} *{{cite book |last=Spink |first=Walter M. |date=2006 |title=Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 2: Arguments about Ajanta |location=Leiden, Netherlands |publisher=Brill Publishers |isbn=978-90-04-15072-0}} *{{cite book |last=Spink |first=Walter M. |date=2005 |title=Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 3: The Arrival of the Uninvited|location=Leiden, Netherlands |publisher=Brill Publishers |isbn=978-90-04-14833-8}} *{{cite book |last=Spink |first=Walter M. |date=2008 |title=Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 4: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture - Year by Year|location=Leiden, Netherlands |publisher=Brill Publishers |isbn=978-90-04-14983-0}} *{{cite book |last=Spink |first=Walter M. |date=2006 |title=Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 5: Cave by Cave|location=Leiden, Netherlands |publisher=Brill Publishers |isbn= 978-90-04-15644-9}} *{{cite book |last=Spink |first=Walter M. |date=2014 |title=Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 6: Defining Features|location=Leiden, Netherlands |publisher=Brill Publishers |isbn= 978-90-04-18015-4}} *{{cite book |last=Spink |first=Walter M. |date=2017 |title=Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 7: Bagh, Dandin, Cells and Cell Doorways|location=Leiden, Netherlands |publisher=Brill Publishers |isbn= 978-90-04-31968-4}}

==External links== *[https://www.walterspink.com/ Website dedicated to the work of Walter M. Spink] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200814134258/https://www.walterspink.com/ |date=2020-08-14 }}

==References== {{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Spink, Walter}} Category:1928 births Category:2019 deaths Category:American art historians Category:American art curators Category:Brandeis University faculty Category:University of Michigan faculty Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Amherst College alumni Category:20th-century American historians Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:20th-century American male writers