Gorky’s "Abstraction with a Palette" (1930) clearly indicates his absorption of Picasso’s Synthetic Cubist paintings and collages, which he would have seen in catalogues and in reproductions in Cahiers d’Art, a leading contemporary art publication. In the same year Burkhardt produced a painting, "Abstract Still Life," that shares the flatness of space and the composition of overlapping shapes, which are non-figurative except for the emphasis on the painter’s palette. Burkhardt’s multicolored painting is smaller and also more compact in its configuration. Both artists were only 26 years old and still at an early stage in their careers.

In 1931 Gorky stopped teaching at Grand Central but still gave instruction at his studio after he moved from Washington Square to a larger place on Union Square. Burkhardt, who continued working at the furniture factory, would come to work in Gorky’s studio on Saturdays and weekday evenings, and Gorky even gave him a key to the studio. Being gainfully employed, Burkhardt was able to help his friend financially and would leave groceries at his studio. On occasion he would buy a work, and he also acquired a good many paintings and drawings that Gorky had planned to destroy or discard, which today offer valuable insights into Gorky’s artistic development. In time Burkhardt assembled an impressive collection of early Gorkys, many of which he would later donate to museums. Those not gifted to museums are now in Burkhardt’s estate, administered by the Jack Rutberg Gallery in Los Angeles, and are currently on view at the University of Virginia Art Museum; the latest of several recent museum exhibitions of this collection.

Gorky’s studio had "an atmosphere so beautiful that I got a little dizzy," recalled de Kooning, who made his living as a commercial artist at the time and would drop in at Gorky’s place in the evenings. The three immigrants—Gorky, de Kooning and Burkhardt—were the same age, but Gorky was ahead of them artistically, probably because he had been studying the European masters with such diligence. De Kooning called him "our master," and later said, "He knew more. There is no doubt that he was the boss." Gorky, in turn, was well aware of his two friends’ talents and said to Burkhardt, "Hans, out of all the young artists, I have faith in you two."

They continued absorbing the Cubist paintings of Picasso. Going back to Synthetic Cubism, Picasso had produced two significant pictures in the late 1920s: "The Studio" (1927–28) and "Painter and Model" (1928), which had come to New York and were at Valentine Dudensing’s gallery and Sidney Janis’ home, respectively, and were accessible to artists such as Gorky and Burkhardt. The Valentine Dudensing Gallery, later to be known simply as the Valentine Gallery, was a pioneering venue of modern art. Sidney Janis, a collector who had sought Gorky’s counsel early on, went on to open a major gallery where he exhibited Gorky’s works.

Gorky’s "Organization," a painting he worked on from about 1934 to 1936, was modeled after these two Picassos. The composition is similar in the emphasis of geometric forms, as well as in the color scheme and the two-dimensional design. Gorky put many layers of pigment on this canvas as he reworked it over a period of several years. He posed for a photo in front of it with de Kooning and was proud to have it shown at the Whitney Biennial in 1936. Burkhardt’s "Artist and Model" (1936–37) is also done in heavy impastos. It relates more closely to Picasso’s "Painter and Model," with the model now rendered as a blue, bird-like form on the right. The same hue is used for the conspicuous palette, which is again central in the painting. But, instead of the relatively spare use of color, Burkhardt’s painting literally bursts with coloration.
 
During this period Gorky painted several portraits of his comrade, such as "Portrait of Hans Burkhardt" (1934), which shows a thoughtful 30-year-old painter holding his palette and looking out at the viewer. There were at least two canvases that were done jointly by the two painters. "Circus (Composition)" (1936) is signed by Burkhardt, but as the Gorky scholar Melvin Lader has pointed out, several passages are clearly Gorky’s. "Gorky’s participation is well-documented, and, in fact, a couple of motifs are most assuredly his." Lader points to the shape of a bird or an animal’s head in the lower center and compares it to Gorky’s "Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia" series, observing that the green oval shape with its red "eye" was a "common motif Gorky incorporated in numerous paintings and drawings of the 1934–36 period."