Landau's book Jackson Pollock, was warmly praised for both its impeccable scholarship and its lively insights into the work of one of the 20th century’s seminal painters. The book also confirmed Landau’s stature as one of the world's foremost authorities on the work of Pollock (1912–1956), the leader of the Abstract Expressionist movement and arguably the most original painter to emerge in America. She is also an authority on the work of Lee Krasner (1908–1984), Pollock’s wife, who was one of the few female painters in the aggressively male circle of the New York school of Abstract Expressionism. Landau’s contributions to the understanding of the work of Pollock and Krasner have been recognized with numerous scholarship-in-residence appointments.