Born in Austria, Fleck studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Art and the School of Graphic Art in Vienna. He was winning awards at the Kansas City Art Institute by 1923, with a one-man show in Houston in 1930 and Paris and Chicago in 1931. During the depression he made his living by painting government-sponsored murals and then went on to become the Dean of Fine Arts at the University of Kansas City. In 1924, the Taos Society of Artists launched an exhibit of New Mexico paintings in Kansas City. Fleck was so intrigued by this show that he moved to Taos where he remained for the rest of his life. His works are held by the Carnegie Museum of Fine Art, Witte Memorial Museum, Houston Museum of Fine Art, Museum of New Mexico, War Department Museum, the Fort Worth Museum and many important private collections throughout the world.