Abstract: This article is a study of a small number of neologisms found in texts by well-known writers commenting on artworks with a view to ascertaining to what degree they convey information and description. The words analysed –pianoteux, manétisé, appley/pommesque and revie– are taken from essays and reviews of exhibitions by Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848- 1907), David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930), Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) and Yves Peyré (born 1952). These literary texts on art are characterised by their aim of communicating the plastic features of the works as much as the impressions or the ideas of the authors, who fully assume the subjective viewpoint of their writing. The writing can therefore be poetic, humorous or even theoretical, and this gives the reader information about how the authors view artistic creation in general. The hypothesis presented here is that lexical creation reveals the difficulty inherent in using everyday language to convey some visible reality, and that it allows the writers to underline the uniqueness of what they think about the artwork by inventing concepts and drawing the reader’s attention to their own creativity.
