Littleton began his artistic career as a ceramicist, receiving an M.F.A. in ceramics from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1951. However, while his work in ceramics predates his work in glass, Littleton had been fascinated by glass and its possibilities from an early age. While working as a ceramics teacher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison during the 1950s, Littleton at last began to experiment in glass, becoming a pivotal figure in the modern American art glass movement. Littleton is now perhaps best known for his looping and twisting hot glass sculptures, composed of strands of various brilliant colors encased in thick layers of clear glass, like Standing Arc. It captures the movement of glass during its creation, with an abstract sense of form and color.