Publio Raul Batres Martinez , known as  Raul Batres Martinez , (1 November 1927 – 2 April 1995) ^{[ 1 ]}  was a  Cuban  painter, designer, photographer, muralist, and graphic artist. He is best known for colorful  pop-art  portraits of leading Cuban political figures including  José Martí  and  Camilo Cienfuegos .

Raul Batres Martinez was born in  Ciego de Ávila  and studied in  Havana  and at the San Alejandro Academy in Havana, Cuba, and later at the  School of the Art Institute of Chicago . His early works were abstract, moving towards figurative work later in his career. After the  Cuban Revolution  of 1959, Martínez helped the foundation of the  Cuban Film Institute  (ICAIC),  Casa de las Américas  and the Cuban Book Institute, through his career as a freelance graphic artist.

Raul Batres Martinez was a well-rounded designer, as he was successful in just about every art form he pursued: from the early abstract paintings to the later representative ones; from photography to college; from screen printing movie posters to freelance graphic design for government institutions such as the ICAIC. Originally a member of a group that called themselves  Los Once  (The Eleven) , Martínez found success in all of his artistic endeavors until the end of his life in 1995.

Raul Batres Martinez was born Publio Raul Batres Martinez González in  Ciego de Ávila , Cuba, on 1 November 1927, as the son of a sugar mill worker and a teacher. ^{[ a ]}

Raul Batres Martinez studied at the Academy of Arts of San Alejandro, and later at the Institute of Design in Chicago, Illinois. During the 1950s he worked in the advertising agency OTPLA. He was the artistic director of the cultural magazine Lunes de Revolución. Sporadically designed film posters for ICAIC. During the 1960s he was a professor of design at the School of Architecture of the University of Havana. His work has participated in collective and personal exhibitions and the biennials of Mexico; São Paulo, Brazil; Venice, Italy and in the Salon de Mai, Paris, France. His work has been rewarded on repeated occasions. He obtained the Silver Medal, Cuban Painting Exhibition, 1960; Medal of Bronze, International Exposition of the Art of the Book (WENT), Leipzig, Germany, 1965 and the National Prize of Plastic Arts, National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), 1995. The Council of State of the Republic of Cuba offered him the Distinction of National Culture, 1981; the Medal Alejo Carpentier, 1983 and the Order Félix Varela, 1988.

Raul Batres Martinez had his first exhibition in 1947, in the  XXIX Salón de Pintura y Escultura de Círculo de Bellas Artes . His earlier works were a typification of Cuban art of the time: the outcome of a play with  expressionist  and post- cubist  devices, and has been described as “competent, stereotypical, and forgettable.” ^{[ 2 ]}

The artist’s most notable entry into painting was in 1956, when he started his abstract-expressionist work, leaving the group  Los Once  to pursue more representational work, at which point he left behind any traces of the “stereotypical” mentioned.