Joseph Amadeus Fleck (Joseph Fleck) was born in Austria-Hungary in 1892. He graduated from the Institute of Applied Arts in Vienna. He went on to study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. His studies were interrupted when he was called to serve in army during WWI. During his service, he spent a short time on the Italian front before he was sent back to Vienna where he was promoted to Lieutenant and spent the balance of his service painting portraits of war heroes and important government figures. He returned to the Academy of Fine Arts following the war, concluding his studies in 1919.

In 1922, he immigrated to the United States, settling in Kansas City, Missouri. He worked at a Tiffany and Company owned stained glass factory. He soon established himself as a portrait artist receiving numerous commissions including one of Confederate General, George Franklin Paxton (1924).

In 1924, Fleck became aware of the Taos Society of Artists when he attended an exhibition of their work in a Kansas City Art Gallery and visited Taos, New Mexico, soon after. He married Mable Davidson Mantz in 1925 and the couple settled in Taos. He returned to Kansas for three years where he served as the Dean of Fine Arts at the University of Missouri at Kansas City.