Dimitris Maniotis was born on July 10, 1923, in Odessa, present-day Ukraine.
After the war he came to Athens, where despite his young age he was exceptionally accepted in the school of Fine Arts as an exceptional talent. A liberal spirit with an explosive temperament, as he always has been, he could not stand the formalism and the remarks of his teachers that he uses a very red (“communist”) color and left the school.
For a short time he studied as a student the painter Spyros Vikatos and was taught sculpture by Vassos Falireas.