Racist joke found hidden on one of the world’s most famous paintings

There's nothing like a racist joke to ruin a masterpiece and your opinion of the artist.

Kazimir Malevich's 1915 painting 'Black Square' is widely regarded as one of the world's greatest artworks.

But it turns out Malevich scrawled a handwritten inscription under the painting, which historians found while looking at the piece with an x-ray for the paintings centenary. 

It translates as something like "Negroes battling in a cave."

According to historians, this might be a reference to a much earlier painting of a black square, called Combat des Negres dans une cave, pendant la nuit (Negroes fighting in a cellar at night) by French writer and humorist Alphonse Allais, painted in 1897.

If correct, this would cast new light on Malevich’s painting, suggesting it was in a dialogue with the French picture.

Either way, it doesn't paint a good picture of the artist and we're guessing people will look at his work in a different, less complimentary light because racism, even for the sake of art is absolutely not cool.