Albert Namatjira is the best known of all the Aboriginal artists of Australia. In his lifetime, Albert Namatjira had great popular and commercial success as an artist and is still regarded by many Aboriginal people as a role model for achievement.

After his death in 1959, the reputation of his paintings went through a period of neglect, and his work has at times been viewed as owning more to cultural assimilation than to his own artistic vision.

More recently his reputation has recovered from this criticism and he, and associated artists such as his own older sons and the Pareroultja brothers, are recognised as making a distinctive and important contribution to Australian art.