interview by GLENN O’BRIEN portrait by ALEXIS DAHAN All artworks images copyright of David Salle / licensed by Vaga, New York, and courtesy of Mary Boone Gallery, New York David Salle was one of the biggest names of the 1980s New York art boom, along with Julian Schnabel, Robert Longo, Eric Fischl, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. But at the time, nobody talked much about the complexities of Salle’s art — mostly they talked about the fact that, following a decade of minimal and conceptual art, artists were again making paintings and money. Maybe now it’s time to talk a little more about his art. Salle was born in Oklahoma in 1952. He grew up in Kansas and earned his bachelor and master’s degrees in fine arts at Cal Arts, where he was mentored by the conceptual painter, photographer, and image guru, John Baldessari. Salle moved to New York in the late ’70s. To support himself, he…