Julian Motau was born to an elderly father with several traditional wives and a host of children, and grew up in a rural homestead in Tzaneen in Limpopo Province. Motau was almost entirely self taught, and in Tzaneen barely received any education at all in the western mode.

In 1963, brimming with talent and burning with the anger that was to find expressionist articulation in his work, the young Motau arrived in Johannesburg, where his special qualities were recognised by the artist Judith Mason, who gave him a space to work and some informal instruction, as well as introducing him to the gallerist, Linda Goodman (Givon), who gave him his first one-person show in 1967. Also in 1967, he won first prize on the New Signature...