Grete Nash
Grete Nash and raku ceramics
Grete Nash (1939-1999), also known as Grete Helland-Hansen Nash, was a Norwegian ceramic artist who helped develop raku in Norway. Store norske leksikon describes her breakthrough with this technique.
From factory design to an individual ceramic language
She studied at Oslo's National College of Art and Design from 1957 to 1962, then worked in the faience department of Den Kongelige Porcelainsfabrik in Copenhagen. She joined the Tenera group under Nils Thorsson. Bilberry sprigs inspired one of her blue decorations for a tureen, as documented in Norsk kunstnerleksikon.
Tenera originated in a Scandinavian workshop initiated by Thorsson in 1958. Initially, its artists decorated his models; later they developed new shapes. The designer of an object's form and its decorator can therefore be different people. SNL’s article on Nils Thorsson explains this division.
Her American stay from 1966 to 1972 brought Nash into contact with Warren MacKenzie at the University of Minnesota and with raku. Returning to Norway, she settled outside Kristiansand. A Bergen exhibition in 1974 marked her breakthrough. Inspired by Paul Soldner in 1981, she later explored low-salt firing, using smoke and salts to affect surfaces. See Norsk biografisk leksikon.
Firing as a creative partner
In modern Western raku, a hot piece may be transferred from the kiln to a container of organic material, such as wood shavings. Smoke affects its surface. The outcome depends on the materials and firing process. Nash helped spread raku knowledge among Norwegian ceramic artists in the 1970s and 1980s. Read about raku firing.
Documented works and different materials
Nasjonalmuseet records Vann, from 1983, as a modelled, raku-fired porcelain bottle, 13.2 cm high. The record shows why each work's material needs to be established individually, even when an artist is closely associated with one firing technique.
Kunstsilo highlights Seremonikar, from 1990, among the principal works of its Sørlandssamlingen collection. Another format is the porcelain relief Ei spalte lys, ein kolonne mørker, made with Paal-Helge Haugen for Kristiansand Public Library and completed in 1988. It is approximately three metres long.
Identifying and describing a work
A Tenera object bearing Nash's decoration needs to be distinguished from a work made in her own studio. Factory marks, model numbers and decoration numbers may help identify the former; ownership history and documentation of the individual work are especially relevant to the latter. Photograph any signature and assess it alongside the whole object.
A condition report should distinguish glaze crazing from cracks through the ceramic body. Close photographs of the rim, foot and any joins help explain the difference. Dark firing marks, wear and later repairs should be described separately. An expressive surface alone does not establish authorship, age or original condition.
