The academy-trained painter Ljubo Ivančić attended the Academy in Zagreb and attended the study program from 1945 to 1949. From 1949 to 1951, he also participated in the special study program of Đuro Tiljak. In 1961, Ivančić became an assistant professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, moving on to the position of professor in 1969, and led the Master's Workshop (1975–84). He was a regular member of HAZU since 1991. He received the "Vladimir Nazor" Award for Lifetime Achievement 1983.

Ivančić created exceptional representations of existential themes in Croatian art. At first he painted in the spirit of the tradition of Croatian Mediterranean painters (Emanul Vidović, Jurj Plančić and Ignjat Job), compositions with wistful atmospheres and strong drawing models. At the end of the 1950s, he created works similar to informel painting, with dense accumulations of pigment that rise from the surface like a relief, and a series of dark still lifes, landscapes and distorted female nudes that radiate existential anxiety. Since 1970, light and color have returned to Ivančić's art. Based on the experiences of modern photography, he deviates from realistic views by building expressive compositions of disproportionate figures and individual scenes. A special group of pictures in his oeuvre consists of numerous self-portraits. In plaster, clay and wood, he formed a reduced sculpture with an expressive charge.