Ratko Lalić was born on 6 February 1944 in Dolipoljе, near Visoko. He enrolled the Applied Arts School in Sarajevo in 1959 and after finishing it he worked as a teacher. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade in the class of Professor Stojan Ćеlić, with whom he also completed the postgraduate studies in 1975.

Lalić received the City of Belgrade October Prize for his stu­dent, artistic and scholarly works; the Great award from Fondation Rista and Beta Vukanović, he was also awarded the Sixth of April award of the City of Sarajevo and annual awards of the Society of Artists of Visoko, the purchase award of the National Museum in Sarajevo at the exhibition Collegium artisticum ‘81, the award for painting in Skopje, at the Eighth Exhibition of the Union of Yugoslav Artists, the purchase award of the Art Gallery in Banja Luka, purchase award at the exhibition Yugoslav Drawing in Zagreb in 1989. The University of Arts in Belgrade awarded him the Great plaque of the University of the Arts with Charter in recognition of his outstanding achievements and his contribution to the development of the Faculty of Applied Arts and the University of the Arts in Belgrade. Lalić was a professor of drawing and painting at the Art Academy in Sarajevo, then a professor at the Fine Arts Academy in Cetinje and at the Faculty of Applied Arts and Design in Bel­grade. Later he co-founded the department of the same name in Banja Luka with his colleagues.

Lalić took part in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Bel­grade, Ljubljana, Skopje, Sarajevo, Nikšić, Sombor, Zagreb, Mostar, Zrenjanin, Dubrovnik, Budva, Banja Luka, Novi Sad, Maribor, Užice, Niš but also in Poland, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Italy, France, Germany, Sweden, Egypt, India, Romania, Bulgaria.