
Display with the documenta 3 logo on Friedrichsplatz.
© documenta archiv / Photographer unknown
Like the second documenta in 1959 in relation to the first in 1955, it was originally planned that the third edition would follow four years after its predecessor. However, this period proved to be too short and documenta 3 was postponed until 19644/9.
Owing to financial bottlenecks, Arnold Bode felt compelled, as with the first two documenta exhibitions, to refrain from integrating the themes of design and architecture into the main exhibition 1/9. In the summer of 1963, he had to ally himself with Jupp Ernst , the director of the Kassel Werkkunstschule, in order to realize at least part of his long-cherished idea. At the end of November of the same year, Ernst joined documenta 3's most important decision-making board, the documenta Council , and agreed to plan at least one design and graphics exhibition as a special exhibition in parallel with the third documenta. Ernst played a leading role in the staging of the exhibition and made the premises of the Werkkunstschule available for this purpose. Bode, on the other hand, was named as the director ultimately responsible for the parallel event.
In fact, only the Industrial Design and Graphics sectors were realized. A section on film and photography, which Bode had wanted to set up additionally, was not implemented at all, and in the graphics show only poster art was exhibited. Moreover, the schedules got mixed up, and so the additional exhibition did not open concurrently with documenta 3, but only four weeks later. It was essentially financed by large donations from two private donors totaling 75,000 Deutsche Mark. In the foreword to the catalog, Bode admitted: "Perfection in design and completeness in detail could not be our goal this time, given the short time available."
Herbert Bayer, Max Bill, and Joost Schmidt from the Bauhaus artists' ranks were represented in the “Graphics” section. Three of Bayer's designs from his years as a Bauhaus student were shown, including a trade fair exhibition house from 1924, exhibition posters designed by Bill only after 1945, and Schmidt's famous poster for the Staatliches Bauhaus Weimar exhibition in 1923.