SCOTTISH author Muriel Gray has hit back at leading poet Liz Lochhead over criticism of Glasgow School of Art (GSofA).

Former Makar Ms Lochhead accused the art school of "downgrading" female artists and overlooking women for teaching jobs for decades.

She also said she was only "grudgingly" taught about now-renowned Scottish artists Anne Redpath and Joan Eardley when she studied painting and drawing at GSofA.

The poet made the comments after visiting the Modern Scottish Women show, the first major exhibition at the National Galleries of Scotland to be devoted entirely to female artists.

However, Ms Gray, chair of GSofA's board, responded on Twitter saying: "Changed days since Liz's 70's. @GSofA proud to champion, train and cherish all women artists/designers/architects."

The exhibition, which covers the period from 1885-1965, reveals how many female artists had shortlived careers due to "domestic and financial responsibilities".

Writing on the Galleries website, Ms Lochhead questioned why so many female artists in the show had been virtually unheard of until now.

She said: "Why have you never seen these powerful paintings before? Why have you never even heard of so many of these fantastic artists?

"Why were the only female painters I ever heard mentioned while studying in the department of drawing and painting in the late 1960s Anne Redpath and Joan Eardley? And then grudgingly?"

"Why did the wonderful Barbara Rae tell me, just last summer, that when she got the job teaching in at GSA in the Seventies that it was ‘because they thought she would be a pushover?’

"That they were so wrong about that makes me glad for the succeeding generations of students – but can any of these questions be connected to each other?

"Is such prejudice purely historic?"