Yiannis Maltezos was born in 1915 in the Boutzas district of Smyrna, today's İzmir, Turkey, where his father ran a timber business also selling paints and other materials for domestic and artistic use.
[citation needed] Following the events of World War I and its aftermath when the majority of the Greek population of Smyrna left the city, the family first settled in Heraklion for six years, later moving to Athens.
[citation needed] In March 1959 he married the Greek-American Helen Kosmas (1924-2016), and they moved the same year to Paris.
[1] Maltezos studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts[2] where he attended classes while at the same time working in a private workshop.
[citation needed] After the war, he began experimenting with an abstract expressionist style, applying a 'drip technique'.