Outrage, indignation - even laughter - are satisfying responses to conjure up when the work of contemporary artists and sculptors is thrust in front of us. The target is an easy one to aim for.

Sadly, much of the work (and I use the word in its loosest sense) so often deserves the ridicule poured on it. A perfect example was the silly, publicity-seeking prank of the student from Brighton University, Ella Bissett Johnson. She dumped a battered Ford Sierra in Brighton's Victoria Gardens and then described it as a multi-dimensional fairy tale which aimed to explore the divide between the myth and the reality in the public image of Princess Diana. What utter claptrap!

But I do congratulate her.

As an explanation of a piece of installation sculpture, it had rather more merit and inventiveness than the object itself.

As the former editor of Sculpture, a magazine I created for the Royal Society of British Sculptors, I was often faced with such rubbish.

I recall one Danish sculptor telling me: "In my work, you experience a clear sense of space and at the same time you feel enclosed." And a critic said of the same man's work that much of it was to do with the resolution of problems, even when the problem was not actually defined!

At the annual Turner Prize at the Tate Gallery in London, I asked one of our leading contemporary sculptors, Anish Kapoor, who was that year's winner, to explain for the benefit of Radio 4 listeners what his abstract work was about. He was appalled. He insisted it was not for him to tell anyone what his work was about. It was for people to decide for themselves.

He must have been reading the French sculptor Jean Ipousteguy who had said rather alarmingly that sculpture was not made to function, but to make us function. So you see, 20-year-old Ella Bissett Johnson is learning the jargon fast.

But while much contemporary art may be easy to ridicule, some artists are producing wonderful work.

Antony Gormley's 65-ft Angel of the North, soaring over the moors above Gateshead, will make your heart miss a beat. Further south, David Mach's huge red brick train is pure delight. And I shall never forget the almost physical impact of seeing Marcus Harvey's harrowing portrait of the child murderer Myra Hindley, created with thousands of children's hand-prints at the Royal Academy's Sensation exhibition.

Emerging young artists and sculptors are seeking to express themselves in fresh ways. Which is how it should be. I shall not attempt to define art, but I would say this to Ella Bissett Johnson and her friends.

Art is a reflection of the human spirit. Art can be inspiring, uplifting, enlightening. Art can be challenging and revealing. Art can be fun and so much more.

Art is not wrecked cars and gobbledegook.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.