Bauhaus artists at the third documenta, 1964

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.

In his introduction to this section, the art historian Werner Doede wrote about the Bauhaus:

For Bode and Werner Haftmann, the "abstract language of the world" manifested itself in the realization of documenta 2 and in the preparations for documenta 3. Even before the second documenta and in the ensuing years, "no vital, future-oriented forces" could be found in contemporary art other than what was exhibited there. In the five sections of the main exhibition, Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee were again represented as historical "instructors" in the "cabinets in the Alte Galerie.” In addition, Fritz Winter, representing the art of 40-60-year-olds, showed eight large-format paintings from 1933 in his own cabinet at Museum Fridericianum.

The sculpture "Rhythm in Space" from 1947/48 was Max Bill's sole contribution to the “Image and Sculpture in Space” section.

Richard Oelze, with three oil paintings, was the only Bauhaus artist featured in "Aspects 64," the section with the largest amount of current art at documenta 3. His paintings, together with works by Jean Dubuffet, were installed in a separate room of Museum Fridericianum. On the other hand, the Bauhaus school was represented by a whole series of works in the large survey show encompassing "hand drawings" from six decades, for which Werner Haftmann was responsible: Kandinsky, Klee, Oskar Schlemmer, Gerhard Marcks, Lyonel Feininger, Werner Gilles, and Oelze. In fact, most of them were grouped together in a room in the basement of the Alte Galerie dedicated especially to the "Blaue Reiter" and the Bauhaus.