Jorge Martins was born in Lisbon in 1940. In 1957, he enrolled in the Architecture course at the School of Fine Arts in Lisbon and in the Portuguese Cooperative Society of Engravers. It was in the space of Engraving that he held his first solo exhibition in 1960. Shortly after, he switched to the Painting course, which he attended until the beginning of the colonial war in 1961, which led him to emigrate to Paris. There, he became familiar with American art from the 50s and 60s and taught at the Institute of Film Training. He returned to Portugal for good in 1991. He received the Calouste Gulbenkian Illustration Prize in 1986, followed by the Drawing Prize at the III General Exhibition of Plastic Arts of the same institution in 1986. In 1988, he was awarded the AICA/SEC Prize. He has held numerous exhibitions, including several retrospectives.