This essay reinterprets the work of Lee Ufan, artist, philosopher, and key theorist of the Mono-ha art movement. I place Lee’s central theory of the “encounter” [deai] with the artwork in the context of developments in contemporary Japanese art, while pointing to Lee’s unique position within that world as he moved between cultural contexts in Korea, Japan, and Europe. I draw on Gilles Deleuze’s approach to aesthetic sensation to argue that, despite those who criticized his work by labeling it as ahistorical and apolitical, Lee’s emphasis on the “encounter” points towards a radically different set of historical and political concerns.