Lytovchenko spent his early years among the fields and steppe landscapes of Slobozhanshchyna, which later found reflection in his monumental compositions. He was a participant in the Second World War. In 1954, he graduated from the Lviv Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts, where his mentors included Roman Selskyi, Witold Manastyrskyi, Ivan Severa, and Yevhen Arofikin. It was here that he mastered the techniques of tapestry, mosaic, and decorative painting.

Throughout the 1950s–1970s, Lytovchenko created a number of landmark decorative ensembles in Kyiv and other cities: mosaic panels for the central railway station “Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi” (1955); interior decorations of the “Bilshovyk” metro station (now “Shuliavska,” 1963) and the Kyiv River Terminal (1961); heraldic tapestries for the National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art — Ukraine in the Family of Brotherly Republics (1957); and about forty other public buildings. His monumental mosaics and decorative panels continue to adorn streets and metro stations, shaping the face of “Soviet modernity” in Ukraine’s architectural landscape.

His largest project was the artistic decoration of the city of Pripyat (1974–1982) — a series of mosaic reliefs and sculptures that embodied the ideals of the “peaceful atom” and the scientific and technological progress of the era. These works remain silent witnesses to the technological and human tragedies of Ukraine.

Ivan Lytovchenko actively participated in republican, all-Union, and international art exhibitions. His legacy left a unique mark on Ukrainian and global art: his works combined ideas of progress with folk traditions, creating an aesthetic dialogue between material and viewer. His monumental and decorative works can be found not only in museum collections but also in the urban landscape, along the daily routes of Kyiv’s residents and visitors.