After studying law, the painter Ivo Dulčić studied painting from 1941 to 1946 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb under Omer Mujadžić and Ljubo Babić, but in 1946 he was removed from the Academy due to political persecution. He goes on study trips to Venice, Florence, Rome and Paris. From 1955 he alternately resided in Zagreb and Dubrovnik. In his early works, he followed the teachings of Ljubo Babić and coloristic intimacy.

Throughout his oeuvre, this painter is preoccupied with classical motifs (landscapes, still life, figural compositions, portraits). In the early 1950s, he brightens the palette, paints Dubrovnik landscapes and interiors, in which he pays special attention to the independence of color. Since then, strong colorism prevails in his paintings, based on applications of pure color, thus continuing the tradition of the so-called of the "Zagreb Colorful School" from the beginning of the 20th century, and is also close to Fauvist aesthetics. In the mid-1950s, he painted a group of figures, seen from above, in the manner of informal painting, which he reduced to rhythmic spots of color and, together with elements of the landscape, suggested an unlimited space.