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An new exhibition of later works by multimedia artist Salvador Dali opens this weekend in Atlanta, with several pieces not seen in the US for fifty years.

The collection of 40 paintings, with films, sculptures and photographs, focuses on the period from 1940 to 1983.

Works have come from countries around the world, including Canada, Scotland and Japan.

The exhibition will be at Atlanta's High Museum of Art until January 9.

"It's become a really interesting area for investigation because you have Dali's career which spans almost all of the 20th century, but historically people have really only looked at the 1930s," exhibition curator Elliott King told the Associated Press. "It was almost like he died in 1940."

The exhibition also includes pictures by American photographer Philippe Halsman showing the artist displaying what King referred to as Dali's “wacky showman” side.

The display also shows two recurring influences on Dali's later work, his return to the Catholic Church and nuclear physics.

One work shows this theme in Santiago El Grande, which shows a crucifixion scene and a horse rearing up above an atomic explosion.

Another, The Madonna of Port-Lligat, shows the Madonna and Child breaking into particles. The painting is currently on loan from a museum in Japan and has not been seen in the US since 1951.

The piece Assumpta Corpuscularia Lapilazulina features Dali's wife as the virgin Mary, and has been in private collections and has not bee exhibited since 1959.

The exhibition includes the 1960 documentary film Chaos and Creation, and early example of video art which includes pigs, popcorn and a motorbike.