Stephen Scheding is an author, art researcher and consultant. He first worked as an art researcher in the late 1960s at Clune Galleries in Sydney (later ‘30 Victoria Street’). In the 1970s, with business partner Jim Berry, he established Scheding Berry Fine Art, art dealers specialising in buying and selling museum-quality works by early Australian artists. Stephen has written numerous articles on Australian art and two books - A Small Unsigned Painting (Random House, 1998), which centred around a mystery work that was possibly by Lloyd Rees, and The National Picture (Random House 2002) which focussed on a lost work by the colonial artist Benjamin Duterrau. He is currently working on his third art book. In 2012 he co-curated the exhibition Fish in Australian Art at the Australian National Maritime Museum and is currently working towards an exhibition titled ‘Beautiful Mysteries’).
Stephen Scheding graduated in Arts from the University of New South Wales, majoring in English and Psychology. He taught English and history and later worked as a counsellor, District Guidance Officer and Student Services Officer, coordinating support services for students in Sydney. He is a psychologist and has specialised in supporting students with challenging behaviour and gifted and talented students. He wrote The Good Behaviour Book for Schools (1990) which was published by the NSW Department of Education.
He has worked a freelance cartoonist and illustrator providing illustrations for books as well as working for a range of periodicals, including Nation Review and the National Times. He has written and illustrated three children’s books – Uncle Mick’s Magic Trick (for getting rid of monsters), Ten Thousand Sheep (get driven home) and King Gilbert (The Indolent), all published by Scholastic. More on the writings of Stephen Scheding.
He is married to film-maker Sophia Turkiewicz and they have one son, Sam.
The Scheding Index is designed for anyone seeking information on an Australian artist. It was begun in 1985 as a simple checklist to keep track of the books and other printed material in Stephen Scheding’s private Australian art library. Today, as well as attempting to be a complete bibliography of Australian art, the Index records information found within the books and other printed material, data that is not usually found in online library catalogues for example. Additionally, biographical references to Australian artists found in art dealer catalogues, auctioneer catalogues, on art websites and in art publishers’ publicity materials, have also been included in the Index. The Index currently comprises over 90,000 records.
The Scheding Art Index is a valuable tool for art students, art researchers, librarians, historians, collectors and dealers. It is especially useful in providing sources of information on early Australian artists, particularly lesser-known ones and in providing lesser-known biographical references for well-known Australian artists. Unfortunately the Index is not yet as thorough in terms of recording information on Contemporary Australian artists, given the proliferation of publications devoted to them.
Try a simple search by entering an artist’s name (try surname or use Christian name as well) or an art subject (key words and phrases such as 'Australian photography', ‘architecture’, ‘Modernism’, ‘goldfields’, etc, may be entered). However, if there are too many results, try Browse.
Use Browse and scroll down to find an artist’s surname and see the key references that have been recorded alongside that artist’s name. Key art subject references may possibly be found in this way (although at this stage art subjects have not been entered consistently, so try Australian Modernism as well as Modernism, or Australian Aboriginal art as well as Aboriginal art, for example).
Current Editing Issues: Typographical errors may be encountered. The entries made when the Index was in its infancy often used abbreviations and may be briefer and generally less helpful than entries made more recently. When the words ‘to be indexed’ are encountered it means that the publication has not been indexed for the purpose of entering information within the publication. Factual information has not been verified (for example, birth and death dates of an artist have simply been copied from the publication being indexed). Duplications may also be found. The Scheding Index is a work in progress. It is hoped that over time editing issues will be resolved.
Help the Index Develop: A major objective of the database is to develop an ongoing ‘living’ bibliography of Australian art. If you, as a user, note any omissions (of books, catalogues, etc, which include significant biographical information on an Australian artist or information about Australian art) you are invited to add this to the index by emailing the artist’s name, publication details or any other relevant information using the contact page.
Feedback is welcome: (although Stephen Scheding may not be able to respond to all feedback). Please use the contact page.
Subscribe to get updates: You can be informed about any future developments by subscribing to receive occasional updates here. Your submitted information is private and will never be released to a third-party.
Stephen Scheding’s private Australian art library of over 12,000 items is rapidly outgrowing its current domestic environment. The library, and the catalogue of the library, would be a suitable acquisition for a public library, public gallery or public-spirited private collector in the future.
Stephen Scheding manages artresearch.com.au researching Australian art, advising on authenticity, provenance, value, fakes and forgeries, tracking down art works and engaging in other art detective work. Stephen is currently involved in a number of projects including work on his third book on art but is available to consult on additional projects of interest and significance. Please use the contact page to propose such projects.
Stephen Scheding has been a partner in Scheding Berry Fine Art for over 30 years. Scheding Berry Fine Art specializes in buying, researching and selling museum-quality works by Australian artists. You are invited to visit the Scheding Berry website to view artworks currently for sale. Or contact Jim Berry on 0417 225 873 to discuss works which are not on our website or for advice on the purchasing of artworks.