Born in Tuzla, Bosnia, Ljuba studied Fine Arts in Belgrade but was shocked by the discovery of 1959 exhibition of surrealist art from the Urvater collection. In 1960, he founded the movement ‘Mediala’, meaning ‘Honey and Dragon’, to express both the concepts of desire and fear. Ljuba arrives in Paris in 1963 and is immediately taken in by French galerists and surrealists. Living in Paris and supported by Thessa Herold’s gallery, Ljuba paints fantastical paintings, full of disturbing and desirable creatures, reminiscent of Dali’s work, according to Mandiargue’s review in 1970. Inspired by a mixture of Renaissance and Baroque painting, as well as his grandfather’s exorcisms, Ljuba’s works teems with the demons of a dark pessimism. (Les Peintres Surrealistes, Sarane Alexandrian, p.58-59).
He is the subject of the short documentary film L'amour monstre de tous les temps (1978) by Walerian Borowczyk. He was member of SANU.