Arnau Puig was a lecturer and professor emeritus of aesthetics and composition at the School of Architecture of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). He was also an honorary member of the Sant Jordi Catalan Royal Academy of Arts.

Arnau Puig had an illustrious academic and professional career, having served as a professor at the University of Barcelona, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and the Sorbonne University in Paris, where he was a professor of sociology of culture and art. He also directed the CSIC Institute of History and Archaeology in Rome and collaborated with the Gaudí Chair at UPC. His contributions to art and culture were recognized with several prestigious awards, including the Cross of Sant Jordi from the Catalan Government, a prize from the Catalan Association of Art Critics, and a Cultural Merit Medal from Barcelona City Council.

As a promoter of modernism in Catalonia, Arnau Puig founded influential magazines such as Algol and Dau al Set and was a member of an artistic group that included Pontius, Tàpies, Cuixart, Tharrats, and Cirlot.