Until 25 April 2026, L’ÉCOLE Middle East, School of Jewellery Arts in Dubai, is hosting the exhibition Poetry of Birds, dedicated to the visual and poetic image of birds at the intersection of Islamic art and Western jewellery design of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The project forms part of Dubai Art Season and invites visitors to see jewellery as a field of cultural translation between East and West.
The exhibition brings together around 150 pieces of jewellery, precious objects and gouache drawings of birds by leading maisons of high jewellery: Van Cleef & Arpels, Cartier, Boucheron, Buccellati, and others. Set in dialogue with them are carpets, ceramics, miniatures, and other works of Islamic art from the collections of the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization and Dubai museums, revealing how deeply bird motifs are rooted in the region’s visual culture.
Among the key highlights is the imagined “aviary” of French jeweller Pierre Sterlé, where fantastical birds with multicoloured plumage are transformed into intricate brooches and decorative objects that demonstrate an extreme level of metal plasticity and colour work. Another section presents historical brooches and necklaces depicting falcons and peacocks, as well as gouache sketches that allow visitors to trace the path from drawing to finished jewel. Equally important is the presence of contemporary photography by Emirati artist Faisal Al Rais, whose images of birds build a bridge between the living natural world and its jewelled stylisation.
The exhibition’s curator, art historian and gemmologist Marie‑Laure Cassius‑Duranton, explains that the starting point was Farid al‑Din Attar’s poem “The Conference of the Birds”, which provides a “poetic route — from text to image, from image to precious object.” She notes that the team sought “to bring together jewels and objects where birds appear in the full range of poses, characters and moods — in flight and at rest, noble and comical, dramatic and tender,” to show how multifaceted the bird motif becomes in the hands of a master.
“Birds have long held a special place in Middle Eastern cultures — as symbols of freedom, renewal and the human spirit,” Cassius‑Duranton emphasises, adding that “this exhibition is not only about beauty, but also about the meanings behind it — about how the smallest motif can carry centuries of memory, emotion and craft knowledge.”
L’ÉCOLE Middle East Director Sophie Claudel notes that through Poetry of Birds the school aims to make the world of jewellery accessible to a wide audience by bringing together jewellery, poetry, photography, music and calligraphy within a single space and “creating a living community around jewellery culture in the region.”
Poetry of Birds offers a rare opportunity to see masterpieces by European jewellery maisons alongside works of Islamic art and contemporary artistic practices from the UAE on a single platform. This exposition is an invitation to look at familiar ornamental motifs through the prism of jewellery history and to understand how poetry, craft, and intercultural exchange literally materialise in gold, enamel, and precious stones.
To get more information about Poetry of Birds, please visit the official web page of the exhibition.
Additionally, we would recommend that you explore the Dubai Pearl Museum. You might also be interested in reading our article about the Varanasi-style necklace on display at MIA.
