Pinchas Burstein, known as Maryan S. Maryan, was born into a Jewish family. During World War II he was deported to Nazi concentration camps in Poland and then at the end of the war to displaced persons camps in Germany. He was the only survivor of his family. He lived in Jerusalem from 1947 to 1950 where he attended the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design for two years. His first solo exhibition took place in 1949 at the Youth Movement of Christian Association (Y.M.C.A) in Jerusalem. He moved to France in 1950 where he studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (E.N.S.B.A) and attended classes with Fernand Léger.