He was the only painter of Slovene descent who managed to establish himself in the elite cultural circles of Italy and France, particularly Paris in the second half of the 20th century, where he lived for most of his later life.

He painted landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and self-portraits, as well as scenes of horror from the Dachau concentration camp and vedute of Venice.

Mušič's father Anton was the headmaster of the local school, and his mother Marija (née Blažič) was a teacher there.

In 1915, during the Battles of the Isonzo, the family (his mother with two children) was forced to flee to Arnače, a village near Velenje in the Duchy of Styria, where Zoran attended elementary school.

In the spring of 1918, toward the end of World War I, the family moved back to Gorizia, but they were expelled again in late August 1919 by the Italian authorities, which had occupied the region.

A month later he was subjected to pressures by the newly established communist regime and moved to Gorizia at the end of July 1945.

In 1951 he was awarded the Prix de Paris, (jointly with Antonio Corpora) for his colorful paintings of Dalmatia.

The much acclaimed series We Are Not the Last, in which the artist transformed the terror of his experiences in the concentration camp into documents of universal tragedy, was made in the 1970s.

In 1991, a permanent collection of 134 graphic works donated by Zoran Mušič was opened at Dobrovo Castle in Brda.

The first installation was curated by Nelida Silič Nemec, director of the Museum (Slovene: Goriški muzej) in Nova Gorica.

In 1991, Mušič received the Prešeren Award for lifetime achievement, the highest recognition in the arts in Slovenia.

The Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts published a volume written by 20 authors from Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Italy, and France (Vizije Zorana Mušiča) in November 2012.

Another exhibition took place in Venice at the Fortuny Museum in spring 2018: A Tribute to Zoran Mušič, The Zurich Room.

The first doctoral thesis related to Mušič was prepared by Aurora Fonda at the University of Padua: L'opera giovanile di Zoran Music, Padova, 2011, which dealt with the painter's early oeuvre, with a detailed inventory of his works.