photography by ROBERT LONGO interview by JEFF RIAN ROBERT LONGO’s large-scale drawings, Men in the Cities, are abstract symbols of what has come to be known as the Pictures Generation — a group of artists that emerged in the ’80s and included Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince, Jack Goldstein, Sherry Levine, and Longo himself. To produce this series he started by taking pictures of his friends, and these served as the working material for the drawings. Flashback to the No Wave influence on art. JEFF RIAN — When did you move to New York City? ROBERT LONGO — I moved to New York with Cindy Sherman, who was my girlfriend at the time, in the spring of 1977. JEFF RIAN — Where did you live at first? ROBERT LONGO — In a loft in the financial district, on South Street, down by the Seaport and Wall Street. A bunch of us…