Her father Jacob Prytz was director of the family firm, co-founder of Foreningen Brukskunst (The Applied Art Association) and a leading figure i the renewal of Norwegian fine crafts and design in the era between the wars.

Prytz' and Juel's residence was often home to students and foreign lecturers of the academy, among them Alvar Aalto and Gregor Paulsson.

After receiving examen artium in 1935, Kittelsen began studying goldsmithing at the National Academy of Art, Crafts and Design.

There she and her husband, Arne Korsmo, were acquainted with the Danish architects Jørn and Lis Utzon, and they established a life-long friendship.

[1] Kittelsen and her husband, Arne Korsmo, traveled around the US and Mexico and met with other designers and architects, such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Ray and Charles Eames, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, James Prestini, and Edgar Kaufmann Jr., who was the director of the Industrial Design Department at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City.

Edgar Kaufmann Jr. had visited Norway a year prior to Kittelson's travels in the US, and was then shown a plate by Kittelsen.

The seminar was ground-breaking for the renewal of the contents and pedagogical methods of the school.From 1954 to 1957 she participated in the "Design in Scandinavia" exhibition, shown in several places in the United States and Canada.

[1] Her foreign visits after travelling in the US were mainly linked to participation at exhibitions and conferences, often related to her engagement in the World Crafts Council (WCC), of which she was a co-founder and board member.

[6] After the Second World War Grete Prytz Kittelsen was commissioned to renew a range of products in the family firm Tostrup, which she did in cooperation with Arne Korsmo.

In 1950 she initiated a cooperation between The Central Institute of Research at the University of Oslo and Hadeland Glasswork in order to develop new, more affordable types of enamel.

Grete Prytz Kittelsen had grown up with the ideals of the modern design movement, where simple and beautiful everyday objects should be made available for everybody.

Both technically and formally her pieces were characterized by an ability to experiment and a modernity that made them original even in an international setting.

As one of the leading artists of the Scandinavian Design movement, Kittelsen received several awards and honours in the 1950s, including the Lunning Prize in 1952.