He is also one of the NEA Four.[5] In 1990 he and three of his fellow artists became embroiled in a lawsuit against the government's National Endowment for the Arts program.[6]John Frohnmayer, one of the chairman of the NEA, vetoed funding his project, a performance comedy with a toilet prop,[7] on the basis of content and was accused of implementing a partisan political agenda. The artists won their case in court in 1993 and were awarded amounts equal to the grant money in question, though the case would make its way to the United States Supreme Court in National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley, which ruled in favour of the NEA's decision making process.[8]
^Looseleaf, Victoria (February 18, 2022). "John Fleck". Art Now LA.
^David A. Schlossman Actors and Activists: Politics, Performance, and Exchange Among ... 2002 0815332688 "In this chapter, I analyze the political and performance work of four postmodern performance artists — Karen Finley, John Fleck, Holly Hughes, and Tim Miller — who work in an "avant-garde" art world characterized by challenges to the ..."
^Noriega, Jimmy A. and Jordan Schildcrout (2022). "The NEA Four". 50 Key Figures in Queer US Theatre. Routledge. pp. 179–183.
^Tallmer, Jerry (October 2, 2003). "Vagina Dentata Monologue". New York, NY, US. Archived from the original on November 10, 2005. Retrieved February 23, 2013. 'I guess you could blame us for that,' Fleck admitted. 'But if it wasn't us, it would have been someone else.'
^National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley, 524 U.S. 569, (1998)
