Yvonne Edwards Tucker, also known as Yvonne Edwards–Tucker (born 1941) is an American artist, known as a potter, sculptor, and educator. She has taught at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee since 1973.

About 
Yvonne Edwards is African-American and was raised in the South Side area of Chicago, Illinois. She was born to the accountant James Cecil Edwards and the educator Leatrice Johnson Edwards. She studied in her early youth at the South Side Community Art Center, and Art Institute of Chicago. She continued her art studies into college and graduated in 1962 from University of Illinois at Urban–Champaign. While attending University of Illinois at Urban–Champaign she took her first ceramics course and met her future husband, Curtis Tucker (1939–1992).

Tucker began her graduate studies at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) between 1962 and 1964, and later transferred to nearby Otis Art Institute to study ceramics where she graduated with a MFA degree in 1968. She studied with Helen Watson, Charles White, Joseph Mugnaini, Herman "Kofi" Bailey, and Michael Frimkess.

Together husband and wife team, Yvonne and Curtis collaborated on sculptures for over 20 years, until his death in 1992. They moved to Tallahassee, Florida in 1968. Together they developed a new technique called "Afro-Raku", combining contemporary, Native American, Eastern Asian, and African traditional ceramics methods.

Artistic style and inspiration 
Tucker utilizes semi-abstract, organic shapes to make up ceramic sculptures. The artist uses anthropomorphic forms that call to mind faces and body parts, imbuing a sense of mystery and power. Her studies of African and American Indian pit-firing techniques give her ceramic pieces shiny, burnished surfaces and a heavy use of the color black. The glazed works contrast with the burnished forms to create a sense of living forms created from simple mediums and practices.

The artist has this to say of her work- ”The sculptural possibilities of utilitarian objects;pottery which reflects earthiness, mystery, and the spirituality of Man. In an effort to find the right balance between serenity and power, I gravitated inward toward my intuitive nature as well as outward toward African, Oriental, and American Indian cultures for inspiration.”

Honors and awards 

 Anonymous Award for Ceramics, Otis Art Institute 50th Anniversary Exhibition, 1969
 Blue Ribbon, Clay Glaze Miami, 1970
 Best in Show, Clay Works, 1972
 Best in Show Award, Florida International University First Annual Art Fair, 1973
 Honorable Mention, Space Coast Art Festival 1974
 Top Honors in Ceramics, North Florida Fair 1975
 African-American Institute and Howard University, Educators to Africa Grant, 1975
 National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Seminar for College Teachers, 1978 
 Fine Arts Council of Florida Mini-Grant, 1979

See also 

 List of African-American visual artists

References

External links 
 Tucker, Yvonne and Curtis papers, 1960-2002, Amistad Research Center, Tulane University

1941 births
Artists from Chicago
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni
Otis College of Art and Design alumni
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
Florida A&M University faculty
Women potters
African-American women artists
Living people
American women academics
21st-century African-American people
20th-century African-American people
20th-century African-American women
21st-century African-American women