He graduated from the Czech Reform Real Gymnasium in Karlovy Vary and in the years 1934-1938 studied drawing at the College of Architecture and Civil Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague (prof. C. Bouda, O. Blažíček and J. Sejpka). In the years 1939-1941 he was a member of the group "Seven in October", from 1942 a member of SVU Mánes and from 1945 of SČUG Hollar. In 1958, he co-founded the "Group 58" and later was briefly a member of the art group "Radar" (1970). He was also an honorary member of the Florence Academy (1964) and a member of the Royal Belgian Academy (1969). He won a number of important awards for his work, in 1975 he was awarded the UNESCO prize for the most beautiful postage stamp in the world, and in 1980 he received the prize for the best Czechoslovak stamp. In 2003, he was awarded the Second Class Medal of Merit by the President.
Liesler's work is characterized by an extraordinary richness of plot, the frequent blending of reality and dream, the use of various metaphors, symbols and allusions, unusual compositional variants, a very distinctive painting style and special decorative colors. Throughout his work, a strong inspiration from surrealism can be seen.